Similar Differences
by MaddHatter12
Summary: "So you've moved on," Tony smirked, quirking his sly brow. "We both have," she smiled. He nodded and wrapped his heavy arm around her shoulder. "You've moved on to a very nice guy...our similarities are astonishing." Bruce X OC Read & REVIEW
1. Oh, the BIG guy

_"They'll only use you, Scotty. They'll use you and let you take the blame for their mistakes."_

"_Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it Tony?"_

"_Pep, I'm not trying to sound like a hypocrite. Really. I'm not. But S.H.I.E.L.D. and I are not affiliated. Nor will I allow myself to be affiliated with them. Even indirectly. It's unacceptable."_

_The tall, beautiful, strawberry blonde woman stood up, patting the strong shoulder of the woman next to her—Scotty. Pepper's warm hand felt nice on Scotty's ice cold shoulder after having taken a deep, thoughtful walk by the rocky shore. Tony Stark, holding his freshly poured glass of scotch, let Pepper slink past him, threatening to slam her bony shoulder into his. His eyes lingered over his shoulder at the lovely woman he had recently begun loving and holding without regret. He could feel Scotty's sad eyes bearing into his chest, just next to his arc reactor._

_Immediately, his chocolate eyes fell back to her blue cesspools that were rotting under the image of the two co-workers in love. Their eyes met, and hers hardened like concrete that had been sitting in the sunshine; no mercy was digging up the soil of this woman's pupils._

"_I'm going." She stated with a shrug, leaning her elbows onto her knees, intertwining her fingers._

_He rolled his eyes and slightly stepped away, looking surprisingly more incredulous than she expected him to, "I can't believe this."_

"_Can't believe _what_, Tony? That I'm wanting to branch out? That I'm taking a step forward despite the fact you've been trying to convince me it's a step back?" she argued, trying not to lose her temper._

"_It is a step back Scotty. You aren't getting yourself any further to that hero status you want." He sighed, his voice low._

_Blinking, she cocked her head, "Honestly, I wasn't getting anywhere with _you_ helping me out, now, was I?"_

"_Hey, I was under the impression that we were making a lot of progression. And that you enjoyed my help." He shrugged, placing a hand over his chest, fluttering his lashes._

_Scotty just shook her head, looking at him rather desperately, "If you won't even tell me how to turn on my mechanics, I'm not seeing help or progression of any kind. So if you want me to stay, well, in a manner of speaking, turn me on Tony Stark."_

_Her bluntness caused him to cough a bit, mid sip of his drink. Pepper, from across the room could be heard snorting and flipping a page in a file labeled S.H.I.E.L.D. Scotty tried not to smirk as Tony wiped the corner of his mouth._

"_You know, no matter how many times you say that, it always gets to me."_

_Shuffling around, he advertently did his best to avoid the topic, playing with things on the table or wiping his cup and his face with his shirt. Scotty, nervous, shifted on the couch so she could face him a bit better than before. She narrowed her eyes and folded her hands in her lap._

"_So, are you going to show me?"_

"_I don't think you're ready."_

"_Not ready? For what, control? Tony I can never learn except from experience." She protested with a scoff, looking at him like his IQ was beginning to drop before their eyes._

"_It's just not something you could easily handle. Control can't be taught." He sighed nonchalantly, like the subject was becoming increasingly boring. Her eyes narrowed further._

"_That's what I was saying Tony, I have to learn from experience."_

"_Not gonna happen!" he said in a quiet singsong voice, wanting her to drop it all together._

_With a slight growl in her voice, she spat out, "You know, S.H.I.E.L.D. would let me handle this—let me do what you're not letting me do!"_

_Menacingly, he began to chuckle, wagging a finger at her as he turned towards his bar, "You know, I'm gonna miss that about you. That snarky sarcasm you managed to pick up from me."_

"_So you're letting me go?" she questioned, standing up, glaring at him like she would suddenly read his mind. He continued laughing and shook his head._

"_No. You see," Tony slowly poured himself a smaller portion of scotch, "S.H.I.E.L.D. would let you turn your mechanics on so they could use you…not really knowing of the consequences for you, and, for them—AND without knowing how to correctly turn you on in the first place, you could possibly self-destruct with one flick of the wrist and clip of the wire. See, babe, they don't know you like I do."_

"_You're seeming to know more about me than _I_ do." She muttered. He smirked to himself._

"_That's because I made you—"_

"_You did nothing of the sort!" she blew up, spitting across the couch out of sudden frustration. "You rebuilt me after you destroyed me! I was made by my parents—out of love and family and life! You "made" me out of guilt! After those five months in that cave, you should've just let me suffer."_

_Tony shut the scotch bottle; setting it on the counter, looking at her with stone cold, dead set eyes, "I rebuilt you."_

"_Out of guilt." She repeated._

_"Out of love and family and life. Just like your parents—"_

_"You're lying! If that were true, I would be in Peppers place, wouldn't I? Standing by your side with your arm around me so you could protect like you "always want to"—but I'm not! I'm an obligation to you…a piece of art that you can drag around. You can point at me and say, "I saved her life, I built her, I can make her do neat tricks—and that's what only I can do"…You use me." She growled, advancing towards the bar, pointing a slim, slender finger at him. In context, she would point to herself and then to him to intensify how serious she was about this._

_When she was finished, Tony didn't say anything. His jaw, in its frightening way, just sort of locked and popped to one side as he stared at her like she was a shadow._

"_And you don't deny it." She whispered through a possible quivering lip that she tried to hold back._

"_Go."_

_Pepper awkwardly looked up from the files, trying to not to listen after hearing Scotty's comment about her relationship with Tony. Her friend was letting out her feelings, and she felt sorry for having been there to witness and the probable cause of her pain._

"_What?" Scotty asked._

"_Go to S.H.I.E.L.D. Go be treated like the robot that you are. See what I care. See if I need you."_

"_Tony—you're acting like a child." Pepper suddenly said, staring at him sternly._

_Without another word, Scotty pushed herself away from the bar, watching him, never looking away from him. She managed to slip on her sandals and walk over to Pepper. Holding out her hand, Scotty took the file carefully from Peppers twitching fingers. They both watched Tony, and Tony couldn't look at either of them._

_Jarvis piped up; finally, opening the door, "Shall I send your things to S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury?"_

"_Yes, please." She muttered._

_There were a few beeps and suddenly a car pulled up for her, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been notified of your impending arrival and will be expecting you on a private plane in one hour."_

"_Thank you Jarvis."_

"_You're welcome."_

_Pepper rubbed her hands together nervously and stood up, watching her friend in heartbreak as she waited for Tony to turn and look at her. Scotty was in the doorway when Jarvis chimed in again, "Do you need a jacket, Ms. Accion?"_

_Half-heartedly, Scotty shook her head, "No thank you, Jarvis."_

"_Good-bye." She followed, shouting it so Tony could hear. His only reaction was to pick up his glass and walk over to his window to stare out at the ocean._

"_Madam, this will never be good-bye." Jarvis' playful tone rang through their ears and Pepper smiled, wringing her fingers._

"_Of course not. See ya' Peps." Scotty muttered, her voice breaking, before stepping out the door and into the car, leaving a trail of tears for Tony to watch evaporate._

* * *

Scotty opened her tired, blood-shot eyes and stared across a large table towards Director Fury, who stood on a round platform between four monitors, looking out colossal windows that stared out at the ocean and sky. At other parts of the table sat Agent Coulson and Agent Hill, one of the two slightly battered and bruised. Lifting a gloved hand up to her temple, she rubbed at it profusely, trying to comprehend the situation.

"I've already called up Agent Romanov. She's on her way here now." Agent Coulson reported.

"What happened, exactly." Scotty sighed, running her hands through her hair, feeling exhausted.

Agent Hill leaned back in her seat, "Last night, at approximately 20:30, the Tesseract began to act up. Upon director Fury's arrival, a demigod named Loki blasted out of the Tesseract and proceeded to kill and harm a few of our men and brainwash Agent Barton and Professor Selvig and take them with him…along with the Tesseract."

Nodding slowly, she quirked a brow and leaned her elbows on the table, "What _is_ the Tesseract?"

"A powerful energy source with unknown, cosmic potential." Fury called from ahead of them.

Scotty rolled her eyes and slammed her head onto the table, causing Coulson to jump a few inches out of his seat. Ever since she had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. almost a year and a half back, they had been just as helpful as Tony. They didn't tell her a lot of things, they didn't inform her that certain things could happen or that they were capable of doing things that they originally had no control over. One thing they had done that she had found positive, was at least find a way to equip her already sufficient, albeit dormant, mechanics with new guns that could pop out whenever she needed without unlocking her original Stark mechanisms, and were able to safely unlock her skin guards for armor.

And, not only had she not known that they had such a thing as a Tesseract cube, capable of cosmic energy, but she hadn't known it had been stolen, despite having left the base an hour before the incident and only being an hour away. No one had informed her that the base had imploded until two hours prior to this present meeting at hand.

Lifting her head and resting on her chin, she mumbled to Coulson, "and he uses his staff to do all of this?"

"Exactly." Coulson nodded professionally, intertwining his fingers, adding, "with the help of the Tesseract."

"Oh, of course." She muttered, sitting all the way up.

"What do you suggest we do, director?" Agent Hill asked, turning to Fury. Coulson also spun around and Scotty looked up through bundles of brown hair that had fallen around her face.

He looked over his shoulder dramatically before spinning around slowly. Individually he looked each and every one of them in the face, especially Agent Hill. He smirked, "It's time to call in the cavalry."

"Sir—" Agent Hill began.

"Yes, Agent Hill?" he interrupted gradually.

She cleared her throat and blinked a few times, "—Sir, is that really necessary? Bringing those people together could be catastrophically dangerous."

"If we let Loki run around with the Tesseract, don't you think that could be even more catastrophically dangerous, Agent Hill?" Fury questioned, folding his arms behind his back and cocking his head questioningly.

"Point taken, Sir."

"Now!" Fury's voice boomed, "We must spread out to retrieve these special operatives and bring them here to deliberate. We can't just send them off without a little order, can we?"

To himself, Coulson shook his head.

Scotty on the other hand couldn't move her head whatsoever because she barely knew anything about the situation. She had been told that her part was to be in the Avengers Initiative, just as Tony had been tested for—leaving her to come out on top. Guessing by the look on Agent Hills face, and what was probably an excited look on Agent Coulsons face, it was about the Avengers.

"It's time to assemble." Fury smiled.

Coulson and Hill stood up simultaneously, followed by Scotty. Hill ran past Fury down to the computers below, while Coulson flew around his chair past Scotty. Confused, she looked between Fury and Coulson and decided to follow Coulson; Fury creeped her out too much.

"Wait—Phil! Who exactly are we getting? Who do I get to work with? Do I get to have a free for all and just pick?" she asked, trying to keep up with him.

Barely, he looked over his shoulder at her with a calm demeanor, "Fury has already given us jobs to go and get the others. He will be off to get Captain America in a moment."

The name echoed through her head and she couldn't but squeal. For years in her childhood, her father and grandfather told stories of Captain America. He was the walking representation of an American Soldier, a true hero, pure and strong. Steve Rogers was basically the poster boy for every man that she had ever wanted to marry, besides the being frozen part. When she had found out they had melted him, she couldn't wait to meet him. The first time was after he had woken up. She had witnessed the moment and got to chase him outside into Times Square. It was sad to see how lost he looked when he found out he had been asleep for 70 years. But now she would get to see him again, and hopefully he would be cheerier.

Throwing a few fist pumps in the air, she did her little jig and then continued to follow Coulson calmly, "that's very nice, and it will be a pleasure to work with him."

"I will be going to get one of my favorites," he sighed, obviously speaking with utter sarcasm, "and you are going to get The Big Guy."

He stopped in his tracks and handed her a well-sized file. Peering up at him, she sneered, "The Big Guy?"

"The big guy. You might like him. You have a lot in common."

Thinking of the nickname, she couldn't think of anyone that anyone had ever called the big guy. The only "big guy" she could muster up the courage to think of was—

"Oh no, Phil you can't send me to get Tony."

"Excuse me?" he asked, blinking a few times and then furrowing his brows. She looked around awkwardly and shrugged.

"I can't go and bring Tony back here. We—didn't part on good terms and it wouldn't be a very smart decision to send the girl he practically made, into exactly what Fury wanted, out to convince him to join the group that stole his "creation"." She explained rather bitterly, air quoting.

"But…we're not."

"Wha—you said the big guy. Tony is a big guy, isn't he? He's important."

"Yes, but he's figuratively big. We're talking about—" Coulson reached out and opened the file laying flat in her hands. "—the BIG guy."

Immediately catching her eye on the first page was a fuzzy picture of a large green monster roaring to the sky, holding onto scrap metal…or maybe a person…or a tank. She cringed and shrugged, "Well, I guess that's a little better."

Coulson patted her shoulder, "Trust me. You'll be fine. I hear he's really nice."

The tone in his voice, a not very reassuring one, set her off kilter and her eyes widened as he walked away. She looked around, holding the folder to her chest. Already, Coulson had led her into the hanger with a plane preparing for her boarding.

Pressing her lips together and squinting, she looked down at the file again and read that she would be traveling to India.

"Well…Mr. Bruce Banner…you sure pick interesting places for people to find you." She muttered before stepping right onto the plane, just as the steps touched the floor.

It was time to put her professional face on.

**Oh hey guys!**

**So, I saw the Avengers and fell in love with Bruce.**

**My OC that I had had from Iron Man (who was originally supposed to end up with Tony) seemed perfect for him (not trying to toot my own horn).**

**The whole plot is starting to line up with all of the movies and I AM SO HAPPY.**

**You'll get to know Scotty a lot more over the course of the chapters (more of her past with Tony, more about her temper and her powers, etc.)**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed the first one!  
Read & _REVIEW_**


	2. Monster Isn't The Word I Was Looking For

_They sat in silence, she and Yensin. Only sound to be heard was the crackling of a small fire that Yensin had made a few minutes prior. Otherwise they said nothing._

_Deep inside the pits of their stomachs, the aches of eagerness kept them down. They were expecting someone to burst through the thick metal door, dragging someone behind them. Their captor had told them to anticipate the event for they would both be a part of it and be active participants in the literal and figurative dissecting of whomever they were bringing in._

_Yensin had shot off immediately with ideas of who it could be: someone from the UN, the President of the United States, a House member or Congress member from the U.S., the leader of a rivaling terrorist group. The list continued, with names of people she had never heard of before—big important people._

_When the time came, their minds had suddenly cleaned themselves of those names, taking new guesses as to who it could be. Yensin expected it to be a U.S. official, while she was beginning to hope it was all a hoax and they weren't actually bringing anyone._

_The bustling of footsteps outside the door and the loud voices reverberated throughout the caves and the two scientist "Doctors" cringed, gazing up at the door expectantly. Her brows sloped downward in worry as Yensin stood up. The sound of the lock made her stop breathing for a moment._

_More yelling progressed and finally the door was shoved open. A group of men carried in a limp body, bloodied and tattered. A few of the men yelled at her, causing her to jump out of her seat and over by Yensin. They set the body down on the seats and she could barely make out the left over rags of a suit._

_The men began speaking wildly in the language she didn't understand. Neither her, nor Yensin, made a move to look at each other. One of the men turned around and snapped his meaty fingers at Yensin, calling him over. Hesitantly he obeyed and the man whispered in his ear. The two of them nodded and a couple of the men left, while the rest began covering their mouths with cloth and setting up Yensin's equipment._

_Eyes wide and alert, she stepped forward to Yensin and muttered, "What's going on?"_

"_This man has been critically injured…we must fix him." Yensin whispered._

_Without wavering, her eyes fell on the form. She gasped at the bloody heap, his face stained brown with dirt and blood, his dark brown hair light with dust and rubble. There was a large gash in his chest. The face wasn't recognizable, even if it had been cleaned up, but the facial hair certainly was unique._

"_He has shrapnel in his heart. We cannot remove it safely, so we are simply finding a way to keep it at bay." He muttered again, wiping off his hands with a rag._

"_You're operating on him? You aren't a doctor—you're a physicist! An engineer!" she hissed, looking down at the poor soul again._

"_I have to help," he sighed, looking at the man sadly._

_The group of terrorists gathered around the man after Yensin ordered them to retrieve certain items, one being a car battery. Anxiously, she bit her lip as Yensin held up a knife to the dim lamp. Her brows furrowed and she stepped forward._

"_Yensin, aren't you going to give him anesthetic?" she asked, her eyes darting between the men and the body._

_His gaze read that he found her question stupid and then proceeded to lower the knife to the body's chest, "You may want to cover your ears."_

_Unconsciously, she stepped away in horror as the knife dug into the mans skin and his eyes half opened. A yelp escaped his lips and his eyes glazed over multiple times, like he was struggling to keep consciousness. He kept yelping until finally his chest was open. She wanted to throw up, to make sick all over the floor, but her body just wouldn't let her. Only dry air heaved out of her sore throat, her body doubling over one of the extra chairs. The men enclosed around the form as the man began yelling and screaming in pain, some of the terrorists threatening him in their language and preparing to harm him as Yensin worked on him._

_The sound of his horrid screams shook her body to the core and she slapped her hands over her ears to stop it all. Although muffled, they were still present. Tears formed in her eyes and dripped down her cheeks, forming canyons in the dust caked on her pink face. She clenched her teeth closed so she wouldn't cry out loud, but her lip quivered menacingly._

_After a lifetime, Yensin finished and stood, covered in blood. The other men wrapped the body up in cloths and all rose to leave the room immediately, laughing with one another. She shook her head profusely, her hands trapping the screams in her head. Surely this man must be dead._

_Yensin found his way over to her and touched her shoulder with his bloody hand, "Calm down, girl."_

_He tried to say it sweetly, but she found no comfort._

"_I don't want to be here anymore. I want to go home."_

"_Do not worry, he is safe now. He is alive. We will not be here much longer." He said, his attempt to comfort lacking in luster._

_Her long, scruffy brown hair whipped around her face as she shook her head and she looked at him with pink puffy eyes, "We'll be here forever…until we die."_

_Broken and beaten, she fell against his knees and cried. His bloody hand patted her shoulder._

…

_Again, the two of them sat around the fire, staring at it numbly. It had been a week since Yensin had operated on the man. He was alive, but hadn't wakened and she thought he wasn't going to make it another day._

_Kicking a pebble across the dirt, she saw from the corner of her eye, movement from the makeshift bed. Furrowing her brows, she carefully peered at the body._

_A shallow breath sucked a gallon of oxygen out of the atmosphere, the chest of the body filling, heaving out harsh breaths. He was awake. Yensin made no attempt to stand, but she couldn't help but jump from her seat. Rushing to his side, she stepped around the end of the makeshift bed and sat beside him, looking down at his fearful chocolate eyes. They darted around until they landed on her, staring at her like a crazy man._

_All she could do without startling him was smile, "You're awake. Welcome."_

_Steam rose from his crusted lips and he carefully swallowed down a burning wad of bile. His eyes left her only for a moment, "What's…going…on…"_

_She smiled again, "Shhh…rest for a moment first."_

"_I feel…like I've…been…resting enough…"_

_She chuckled, "Then use your energy to introduce yourself. I'm Joni Accion. They call me Scotty."_

_His eyes narrowed and his body shivered, "Tony…Stark…"_

"Dr. Robert Bruce Banner…born to atomic physicist Dr. Brian Banner and his wife Rebecca," Scotty read aloud to herself through gritted teeth. Besides the pilot and co-pilot, she was the only one on that specific plane.

She cringed at the next line, moaning to herself, "Oh…'his father was an alcoholic'…'and murdered Rebecca out of rage'—oh goodness."

"We're just over the Mediterranean, Agent Accion." The co-pilot called.

"Thank you." She said half-heartedly, not really paying attention.

She flipped through the files, running her fingers across the multiple pictures they had of Bruce and his alter ego, The Hulk. The Hulk was monstrous, and almost every picture of him was that of rage and destruction. Bruce Banner, on the other hand, appeared nervous and calm, even uncomfortable in some instances. The file stated that despite the abuse, he turned into a rather meek nuclear physicist. Retrieving him would be nicer than getting Tony.

Crinkling her nose, she thought of a synonym for retrieving. None of the heroes could be considered dogs.

A beeping from her pocket distracted her just as she got to the page about the G-bomb he was testing. She awkwardly dug for the beeping and pulled out her communicator. Flipping the top up, Agent Coulson's face appeared, surrounded by a black marble backdrop.

"Agent Accion, how is the trip going?" he asked pleasantly.

"Rather well, actually. Making good time…just passed over the Mediterranean," she shrugged with a slight smirk. The communicator beeped again.

"I've sent you more information about the…power source that was taken. Fury wasn't very helpful in informing you," he said immediately. She pressed the flashing light and the image of the Tesseract appeared, along with a picture of Loki.

Silently, she read to herself. Everything about the Tesseract she knew, but she didn't know that Loki planned on ruling the world with it.

"So this God wants to enslave us…" she muttered.

"With the power source it shouldn't be too hard for him," Coulson said bluntly. Scotty smirked and shook her head.

"Well he's got us to deal with," she said proudly, closing the picture. He nodded and flinched when familiar fingers clutched his shoulder.

His face was slightly pushed out of the way to reveal Peppers, "Scotty?"

"Pep?" she yelped, covering her mouth after the outburst. The pilot and co-pilot didn't even budge. Expressing embarrassment, she smiled down at the communicator, "Oh my God Pep! How are you?"

"Hi honey! Look at you, you look so beautiful!" Pepper winced emotionally, touching her own cheek gently.

"Me? Have you seen yourself? You look gorgeous! You're glowing!"

The pilot gazed over his shoulder and Scotty tried not to glare.

"Really? I've been using this cream that's supposed to stop wrinkles before they can form and—"

"Ladies, please. I'm here to talk about business." Coulson said off screen. Pepper snickered and covered her mouth.

"Oops! Sorry Phil. I miss you Scotty." Pepper cooed before handing the device back to Coulson.

"Phil?" Scotty asked, quirking a brow.

"It's no problem Ms. Potts."

"I thought your name was Agent."

"As you can see, I've just departed from a meeting with Mr. Stark," Coulson said, pressing his lips together indefinitely.

Melancholy, Scotty twisted her mouth, "How did it go? Was he up to it?"

Coulson dead panned, but kept his eyebrows high and positive, "Not directly."

"Weird," she commented, "He kind of likes the direct approach."

"But, with Ms. Potts' help, I think he might change his mind." Coulson smirked devilishly. Pepper stuck her face next to Coulson's and smiled.

"He's doing his homework right about now."

Scotty laughed quietly and looked down at her lap, "Good. It's a great opportunity. I think I turned out all right."

Her eyes stayed in her lap, remembering the day she left. She had wanted so badly to leave, but the feeling of Tony begging her to stay would've been a nicely added touch. But her words had angered him and she left as a hated acquaintance. He had no affiliation with her anymore as far as they both were concerned. They weren't in contact and Scotty only heard about his recent work from the news.

The view on the screen shifted, and only Pepper's face was staring at her, her lips twisted in caution, "He does miss you."

The sentence amused her greatly, "Pep, as much as I trust your valued opinion, I don't find any ounce of truth in it."

"We're approaching the India-Pakistani border." The co-pilot called.

"It is true. I had him write a letter about it. It helps him express his feelings." Pepper nodded professionally.

Cautiously, she looked up at her best friend, "And it said…?"

"…He never gave it to me."

"Damn it Pep."

"May I have the communicator, Ms. Potts? This is our floor." Coulson coughed. A distant ding sounded through the communicator and an ominous light flooded their faces with gray. Pepper waved sheepishly.

"We'll have lunch sometime." She whispered.

"Love you, Pep." Scotty smirked. Pepper blew her a kiss and Coulson appeared on the screen.

"So you're about to land in India?"

"I didn't quite hear where we were…but probably." Scotty sighed.

"Perfect. Update me once you make contact with Dr. Banner."

"Yes sir."

She lifted her other hand up to prepare to shut the communicator when Coulson waved, "Agent Accion."

Her hand froze and she looked at him expectantly. He smirked, "He's been receiving S.H.I.E.L.D newsletters."

"We have…newsletters?" she asked, blinking profusely.

"…Yes…and from what I saw, he kept a few with articles about you."

"Bye Coulson."

She slammed the communicator shut and the co-pilot shifted in his seat, "preparing to land."

Plastering her nose into Dr. Banners file, she trudged out of the plane in Indian styled clothing to blend in. Her heels pressed firmly into the dirt and she squinted at the picture of Banner on one page, the only picture that actually had a clear look at him. He was surrounded by a mob of people bustling back and forth, looking over his shoulder, squinting in the sunlight. His clothes looked worn and somewhat dirty, like they were aged or worn before his time. Gray slunk through his side burns and the sides of his curly, faded brown hair, dark stubble speckling his chin. Bags were forming under his exhausted eyes.

"How can such a timid man hold in such a…a…"

"Monster?" the pilot questioned, stepping off the plane with a grunt.

Quirking a brow and examining her surroundings, she pursed her lips, "Monster wasn't really the word I was looking for."

"You've seen the pictures. He's a monster," the pilot replied, tipping his helmet up, revealing a sweaty brow.

"I'll believe that when I see it," she ended, tightening her grip on the file and starting forward.

The pilot followed her, catching up rather quickly, looking over her shoulder at the file. She was reading about the Gamma radiation accident. The words made her stomach churn at the idea of such a disastrous thing happening to someone like him. Skipping the rest of that page, she flipped a few pages forward to a picture of a beautiful young woman. Her photograph was also fuzzy, but her beauty was evident.

A large finger pointed at the picture, "That's Betty Ross…his old flame. Fell in love with the Bruce but couldn't love the monster."

"Alter-ego. It's an alter-ego," Scotty corrected nonchalantly, reading the name, along with General Thadeus Ross', Betty's father.

"Her dad sounds like a real ass," she grumbled, checking the top of the next page before setting that page down gently.

The pilot coughed and laughed, also pointing to another name, "This guys does too. Major Glenn Talbot. He and Dr. Banner hated each other."

She read on from the name and found that he was a competing suitor for Betty. No wonder Banner might've hated him. Getting in the way of love. She blinked herself out of the thought and smacked at the pilot's hand, "I would appreciate it if you wouldn't glance over my shoulder. It's a nuisance."

With that, the pilot stopped walking altogether and allowed her to leave him in the middle of a deserted plot as she walked out into the slums. Scotty had no idea where she was going, but she thought that finding the only white "doctor" in India wouldn't be too hard. It could be fairly easy since he was supposed to be in the general vicinity anyways. According to the file that is.

Slipping through the thin alleyways, she found herself in a slew of houses with no one in sight. The only people she could see were actually their feet sticking out of the doorways or behind corners. Cautiously, she poked her head around a few walls, looking down passages before proceeding through without hesitation.

Movement in her peripheral caught her attention, and she reached for her gun strapped to her thigh, but didn't draw. A little girl cowered behind a wall, staring at her with scared eyes. Scotty loosened her stance and let go of her gun, her eyes softening, resorting to kneeling with her hand out to touch the girl. The girl, visually frightened, cowered away some more.

"मुझे माफ करना, छोटी लड़की, तुम सफेद चिकित्सक का पता है? ग्रे बाल, पुराने कपड़े, तरह? (Excuse me, little girl, do you know of the white doctor? Gray hair, old clothes, kind?)" she asked quietly and slowly, in the broken Hindi she could hear from her ear piece.

For a moment, she thought she saw the girl react. The girl stepped out from the wall and lowered her head, looking at Scotty worriedly, "आप क्यों जानना चाहते हो? (Why do you want to know?)"

Scotty smiled and scooted forward on her knees, but the girl backed away. She stopped and relaxed her shoulders, "मैं उसे देखने की जरूरत है.तुम मेरे लिए उसे मिल सकता है अगर आप जानते हैं कि वह कहाँ है? (I need to see him. Could you get him for me if you know where he is?)"

"... वह ही आता है जब तुम बीमार हो ... (he only comes if you are sick)."

Her palms were beginning to sweat, "मेरी ... पिता बहुत बीमार है, और लिए सफेद डॉक्टर देखना चाहता है. (my...father is sick, and wishes to see the white doctor)"

Silence between them, in the distance the soft hum of people. He was probably out there; the girl would never find him.

"तुम कहाँ रहते हैं? मैं उसे वहाँ का नेतृत्व कर सकते हैं. (where do you live? I could lead him there)" the little girl suggested with a shy shrug.

A grin couldn't help but spread on Scotty's face, "वहाँ मैं रहते हैं.उस झोंपड़ी में. यहाँ, भुगतान के रूप में कुछ पैसे ले लो. (I live there, in that shack. Here, take this money as payment)" she replied too soon, pointing at a random shack off on a large plot. The girl nodded and ran off the opposite direction.

"Great...now it's time to get the house."

With a determined stance and mindset, she puffed out her chest and stomped over towards the shack, with lit windows and the banging of pots and pans. Not planning on stopping, she pushed her way through the door and stared down at three men at a table, and another kneeling by a bucket with a pot. They stared up at her, not too startled.

This was going to be easy. With a booming voice, she said proudly, "मुझे माफ करना, सज्जनों. लेकिन मैं अपनी जगह की जरूरत में हूँ. (Excuse me, genetlemen. I am in need of your place)"

The lack of sleep was yet again plaguing her. Her eyes threatened to close and her muscles planned on giving out any minute now. She had slung herself over a chair behind a beaded curtain, hidden away in the side of the shack. Full view of the table and the rest of the shack was necessary.

"I knew it…she couldn't find him." She muttered.

Easily she had confiscated the shack from the four men, who had put up no fight. Of course she promised to give it back to them once her business was through. Until then they were free to roam around their land until Dr. Banner had shown up.

In her time in the silence, she read more of the file. Nothing could really stick in her mind, so she felt it a complete waste in the end. She just kept reading about Betty Ross over and over again because that was the most interesting thing about it.

Suddenly, footsteps in the dirt alerted her to guests, and she sat up in her chair, her back snapping in a million different places.

"वह यहाँ है जल्दी करो! (Hurry he is in here!)" the little girls voice called desperately. A set of heavy footsteps followed her onto the porch.

"हाँ ठीक है धीमा. (Yes okay slow down)" the owner of the footsteps chuckled.

The tone of the voice made Scotty halt for a moment. It sounded wise and warm hearted. Like he didn't mind having to chase this girl throughout the town to get to another patient. She could tell that he was smiling.

The cloth was rustled and the little girl dashed across the house, while Dr. Banner stopped halfway across the floor.

"Hey..." he began to protest suddenly. Scotty furrowed her brows and peeked out the curtain in time to see the little girl climb up the bed and jump out the window. Her face read that she was impressed; she didn't tell the little girl to do that.

A large sigh came from the middle of the room, "Should've gotten paid up front, Bruce."

Scotty sucked in a breath and stepped out, "You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, India wouldn't have been my first choice."

His large gray eyes glanced over at her, unfazed by her appearance. "Avoiding stress isn't the secret," he chuckled, his voice hinting at sarcasm.

Trying not to smile, she folding her arms behind her back, "Yoga?"

"You brought me to the edge of the city, smart," he pointed out, playing with his calloused hands. "I uh...assume you have the place surrounded?"

Nervously, she chuckled and nodded, "Just you and me, Dr. Banner."

Dr. Banner nodded his head slowly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. There was a silence and they both sort of gazed around the shack. Clapping his hands together quietly, he shrugged, "And your actress buddy, is she a spy too? Do they start that young?"

Her mouth dropped open but nothing came out. She just shook her head, holding her tongue instead, smiling casually.

"Who are you?" he asked, cracking his knuckles carefully.

"Joni Accion," Scotty smiled.

"Are you here to kill me? Because I don't think that would work out for everyone," he inquired.

Her eyes widened and she shook her head wildly, "No, no, of course not! I'm here with S.H.I.E.L.D."

For a moment, she thought she saw a glare from him. He shifted his weight and looked at her skeptically, "how did you find me?

Pressing the button on her earpiece once, she received an answer; "_S.H.I.E.L.D has been keeping tabs on him, even diverting possible threats away from him_."

"S.H.I.E.L.D has been…watching you…keeping tabs. We've even diverted possible threats against your safety. Managing to keep you safe," she said, keeping her voice low and secretive.

_This pilot knows a little more about this than I do,_ she thought, a hint of jealousy nipping at the thoughts heel.

Finally, with a chuckle, he smiled, finding what she said funny. A little unnerved, she didn't make any movements. In his file, any stress or over exerting of a stressful emotion could set him off. No doubt she didn't want to get on his bad side, no matter how much she secretly wished to see his alter ego out of fascination.

"Keeping me safe. I like that," he muttered.

"Now its time for you to come with us, back to our headquarters," she added.

He smirked and looked her straight in the eye, "Why?"

She shrugged and smiled sweetly, "Fury must trust you. I know he needs you to come in."

Carefully, he stepped away from the door, "And what if I said no."

Unfazed, she smirked, thinking of as many answers as possible. She decided to keep it simple and sat down again, "I can be very persuasive."

"And…what if the other guys says no?"

Pursing her lips, she didn't say anything. He caught her on that one. She pressed her ear piece again and the pilots voice muffled, "_He should be fine. He hasn't freaked out for almost a year_."

"You haven't had an…accident…in a year. I don't think you want to break that streak," she tried to say as nicely as possible, trying not to come off as snide or threatening.

"I don't, every time, get what I want," he said, sounding like he was trying to keep his heart from splitting in twain.

Feeling her agent side coming on, she sadly tried to do her persuading with pathos, "Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe."

"Well I actively try to avoid those," he asked ponderingly.

Sighing, she thought about the power this thing could really hold. This Loki guy could do anything, and she had barely heard of him. She pulled out her communicator and pressed a few buttons until a picture of the guy, along with the Tesseract, appeared on the screen. She held it up for him to look at, "It's called the Tesseract. Apparently it has the potential to wipe out the entire planet."

"What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?" he said rather snidely, like he was trying to protect himself from the possibility of being surprised. Like it was expected of Fury to use him like that.

Concerned that he was getting the wrong idea, she stood, clutching the communicator tightly. "Our purpose isn't to exploit you, Dr. Banner. He wants you to find it. It's been taken. It omits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace," she said, reading off of her screen.

"There is no one that knows gamma radiation like you. If there was, I wouldn't be here."

He nodded sullenly and began to pace, "So you don't want the other guy."

"As far as I know, no."

"As far as you know?" he questioned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously, his brows rising.

"As far as I know, Doctor. I'm not the highest on the food chain at the moment," she muttered, clenching her jaw. A year and a half with S.H.I.E.L.D only got her training, new equipment, a new outlook and government access. Which, even for a S.H.I.E.L.D operative, wasn't a lot.

The look on his face was unreadable. It was obvious he was torn, but he looked like he would soon pick one side or the other, and it wasn't going to be S.H.I.E.L.D's. He always looked like he was pondering the biggest questions, and he could never quite figure them out.

Without looking away, she began playing with her nails, scratching them and poking them. He again looked at the floor, thinking extremely hard about what to say and what to do. A minute passed before he lightly stepped up to the table, looking down at her now, examining her playing with her nails.

"Wouldn't he tell you everything?" he asked, looking at her frustratedly.

"Like I said, I'm not high up on the food chain. You would have to ask Fury, he needs you on this," she said, trying not to get riled up or annoyed or frustrated.

From what she read in the file, his control of himself was very high, but she wasn't going to take chances by losing her temper either. She had hoped he would've been cooperative.

"He needs me in a cage," he muttered, cocking his jaw, looking at her like _she_ was a monster.

Her brows furrowed and she stared at him shocked, "Dr. Banner…no one is going to put you in a—"

Suddenly he slammed his hands onto the table, "STOP LYING TO ME," and she yelped in surprise. A small little fazor type device unsheathed itself from her shoulder and pointed at him. He quickly backed away, holding his hands up in defense as her wild eyes stared him down in shear fright, her fazor going unnoticed to herself. He had certainly taken her aback.

"I'm sorry. That was rude. I just wanted to see what you would do. How about we find another way in which you don't use that and the other guy doesn't make a mess?" he asked nicely, his voice warm and gentle, reassuring her surprisingly fast.

Furrowing her brows, she turned to her shoulder and saw the fazor. "Oh God," she gasped. Harshly, she used her hand to shove it back into her shoulder.

"I am so sorry—that's really turned into a reflex! I didn't mean for that to happen at all!" she apologized, standing up and covering her cheeks profusely.

A small smile spread across his lips and Scotty couldn't help but smirk a little and set her hands back down at her sides. She rubbed her elbow, slightly giggling. An odd noise emitted into her ear, and the voice of the pilot spoke.

"_We have the target ma'am. On your orders, we'll shoot_," he muttered.

She placed her finger on her the earpiece, her face shifting into worry. "Excuse me?"

"_Our targets are locked on Banner. On your orders we'll—_"

"Stand down! False alarm," she spat, looking away from Dr. Banner.

No reply came, so she assumed they had put away the guns. Turning back to the Doctor, she couldn't help but be taken aback at how he was looking at her. Still, he was pondering, but no longer was it about the big questions, but apparently her. His eyes swirling with wonder, his hands rubbing together slowly, creating friction, his brows lowered slightly. All she could do was shrug and nod, trying to stay professional like Fury had taught her.

"So…what will it be Dr. Banner?" she asked.

He blinked wildly and looked away from her, examining the shack. "Do I get to pack?"

"_No_."

"Unfortunately no," she sighed, pressing her lips together.

Luckily, he didn't seem too disappointed, "That's fine. I have a lot of expendable items anyway."

With a large, rough hand, he gestured to the exit, "After you, Agent Action."

"Accion," she said under her breath.

"…I'll get it right sooner or later," he muttered self-consciously, pressing his lips together awkwardly.

Trying not to smile, she sauntered towards the door and stopped next to him. She held out her hand again, "It will be a pleasure to work with you Dr. Banner."

Slowly he took it and shook, keeping his grip gentle but firm, "Please, call me Bruce."

**I made some adjustments to a lot of the dialogue, because I got a hold of it!**

**Hurray for IMDB quotes!**


	3. Aren't you an android?

_Blinded. Blinded by a haze and a light that threatened to turn off her whole world. That's how bright and blinding it was._

_The faint, haunting smell of chemicals and hospitals reached her nose. That smell like someone poured Pepto-Bismol across the already mint waxed floors of a Rite-Aid and proceeded to poorly clean it._

_A 'beep…beep…beep…' could be heard every few seconds. It didn't echo or resonate, but it didn't come and go very quickly. It was like the impending sound of an alarm clock you're expecting to go off any second._

_She wriggled her fingers, clutching at the cloth beneath them; hard, stale cloth._

_The fuzz her brain had been stuck in began to clear, revealing sharp edges to a lamp and pale ceiling tiles. The beeping quickened._

_Memories were coming back to her now; fire, explosions, yelling, screaming, blood, Tony, dense smoke, agonizing pain. Searing metal against her hot, burning flesh, and the blinding light of the sun she hadn't seen in five months._

"_Hold on babe," Tony's muffled grunt came from behind the iron mask covering his face. The large metal body encased around her and there feet lifted off the ground with a blast, bullets clanging against the suit._

_She gazed down, staring a long black trail of smoke falling to the ground behind them. Out of nowhere, a large explosion burst from one of the canvas bunkers and shot tons upon tons of sparks and weapons through the air, all labeled "STARK". Screams erupted from her throat and her fingers slid from their hold on the metal arm, slipping her through his grip. With an angry gasp, Tony reached down and grabbed her, right as her lower legs dangled down below his fiery feet. Her scream heightened as the pain coursed through her body._

_Further and further they flew from the caves and rocks, escaping to anywhere but there. But sputtering mechanics were going to get them nowhere and soon Tony's rockets blew out, sending them through the air towards the ground at an increasing slope._

_Tony let out a surprised yell and they smashed straight into the concrete-esque sand dune. They both skipped like flat rocks against the surface of the sand, the microscopic earth bugs digging into their pores and injuries. Metal chunks of the suit scattered everywhere, occasionally smacking her arms or torso._

_From her left Tony could be heard grunting and growling as he came to a stop, his ears ringing like mad. Unbeknownst to him, she was feeling the brunt of it. They both lay a ways away from one another, Tony trying to sit up, pulling extra pieces of metal from his person, his reactor shining gallantly against his chest. His head lolled around, cuts and bruises forming on his face and neck, his arm pulsing. It was broken, he figured._

_The ringing in his head stopped and he could hear the silence of the desert. But it wasn't the short silence that took him by surprise._

_Scotty lay across the sand, her blood curdling screams piercing the humid air like a butcher knife. She lay flat on her back, her body dug deep into the sand. Trying to get out, but desperately not wanting to move, she arched her back as she screamed his name agonizingly. Her clothes were singed, along with most of her hair, leaving her scalp a dirty black; her arms were covered in gashes that were overflowing with sand, hunks of metal stuck in different parts of her arm, a few fingers dangling by threads, her left arm twisted nastily; her legs were burnt to the bones from the knees down, a huge chunk of metal sticking out of each thigh, threatening to chop them off, her feet rolled at the ankles; her chest heaved and the recently exposed skin had been torn away to reveal ribs and the pulsing of the bottom corner of her failing heart. Blood, her blood, was everywhere._

"_Scotty—" Tony called out._

_She remembered everything. The beeping increased even further and she tried sitting up, feeling strapped down to the bed._

"_She's awake!" a doctor yelled, a door being pushed open far across the room._

"_Put her under," a familiar, quickened tone demanded. She opened her mouth to scream, but a mask was placed over her mouth and nose._

_Tony's face was the last thing she saw before the lights went out again._

* * *

Pouting slightly, Scotty shifted in her seat so she could peel her back from the leather. Her delicate hand reached up to her shoulder and felt the rip in her shirt from where the fazor had popped up. The cloth ripped a little more under the pressure of her finger as she poked it through the hole and played with it. Sighing she pulled her finger away and sat back in the seat with a thud, crossed her legs, and began bobbing her foot up and down impatiently.

Bruce sat across from her, staring at her shoulder, then at her foot. He played with his hands before awkwardly stopping himself and then crossing his arms in front of his chest, resting his face of all expression. Eagerly, her eyes rested on him, seeing him fiddle about out of the corner of her eye.

The dazed look on his lightly tanned face made her smirk and cross her own arms. The co-pilot gazed over his shoulder just as she glanced towards the front of the plane.

"We're passing over the Atlantic now. We should be arriving on the helicarrier in just under a half an hour," he said robotically.

"Thank you," Scotty said half-heartedly, not paying attention to what he was saying very much.

Bruce shifted in his seat, turning towards the front of plane. His brows furrowed and he pursed his lips slightly, staring between Scotty and the pilots. "I thought we were going to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters," he muttered.

Sucking in a deep breath and holding it, Scotty's eyes searched the plane, thinking of how to put it. "Well…headquarters was…_destroyed_ when the Tesseract was stolen."

Giving her a look of doubt, she nodded her head reassuringly and said, "The helicarrier is just as nice as the headquarters was! If not better!"

When he didn't reply, she took that as if he was satisfied with the answer, and they both nestled into their seats. To encompass the silence, a few walkie-talkie chats were had between other planes in the area, and the pilot and co-pilot spoke for a minute about lunch, since they didn't get curry in India. Scotty began playing with her nails again, and Bruce pulled his glasses from his pocket and began cleaning them.

Wiping them off with the corner of his jacket, he blew a few times to get excess dirt off, then placed them on his nose. He squinted in her general direction and leaned forward in his seat, placing both feet firmly on the metal flooring of the plane.

"So, when did S.H.I.E.L.D make you?" he asked curiously, looking more at her shoulder.

She turned her head, chewing on the inside of her cheek, "Pardon?"

Hesitantly he stood up and walked over to the seat beside her, staring at the hole in her shirt. He lifted his finger and poked at it.

"You feel as though you have real skin," he noted, "but how long ago were you made?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, her lip rising in confusion, her brows creasing over her wide eyes.

He sighed, "When did S.H.I.E.L.D start making and using droids?"

A little weirded out, she looked around the cabin of the plane, her jaw hanging low. Her head began to move back and forth, "I…don't think they do. I'm pretty sure all of their employees are…humans…/mutants/aliens?"

"But…you're a droid, aren't you?" he asked.

His finger strategically placed itself in the hole in her shirt on her shoulder. Peering down at it, she lifted her brows far up her forehead and elevated her chin up in understanding. She shut her mouth and pursed her lips, trying not to say something rude, and definitely trying not to mention Tony.

"No…not—not really."

"That gun though—"

"Fazor? Yeah, that's just…one of my many robotic components," she shrugged, trying not to sound too humble, but trying not to sound too mean.

"Robotic components. Hm. So…you are part _robot_?" he questioned.

Slowly nodding, thinking for a minute if that was a good description, "Yeah, pretty much."

"Fascinating," he half smiled, cocking his head and looking curiously into her eyes. "May I ask why? Or how?"

A laugh stuttered in her throat, like it was tap dancing its way out. She finally let out a snicker, shutting her eyes and smiling, feeling a little embarrassed.

"I—all right. To make…a _very_ long story short, I had an accident. And the only way to fix me was with A.I. technology."

"Like what?"

"Well…I got a fazor!" she laughed, pointing to her shoulder, "Though, that was an add-on from S.H.I.E.L.D. But a majority of my veins have been replaced with new microbe tubes, some of my bones are now metal scraps I think, I have donor organs, except my brain and my heart. And then my skin is basically really thin microfiber, as weird as that sounds, for added protection I have components like that fazor that I honestly have never seen yet because I don't know how to make them work and then my muscles have been reconfigured and built up again over time. I don't really know the logistics…I majored in neurobiology not engineering."

Taking it all in, Bruce could only nod. He shifted in his seat and examined her anatomy, scientifically of course. She smirked at his inquisitiveness; hopefully she wouldn't have to tell the long story, and won't have to mention the financial donor.

"Who paid for all of that?"

_Damn it_, she cursed.

Right as she thought about lying, the co-pilot stepped in.

"Agent Accion, Dr. Banner, we are moments away from the helicarrier."

"Thank you!" she said immediately once he was done talking. She stood up, smiling, and nodded down at him, "I have to make a call."

Rushed, she pulled out the communicator and moved towards the back of the plane. Flipping it open she pressed Coulson's name and tapped her foot impatiently as it rang.

"Coulson," he answered.

"We're about to land at the helicarrier."

"…We know, we can see your plane."

"Yeah, well, I needed something to do."

He glared at her, "Is Dr. Banner not interesting enough for you?"

"No, don't get me wrong, he's really nice, but I want to stop talking about my…adjustments," she coughed.

His glare softened into a look of exasperation, "Did something get loose? Did your fazor pop out?"

"Kay, Coulson, what am I supposed to do? Tell it, 'NO, BOY, STAY IN MY SHOULDER'? Fury is like Tony, Coulson, he doesn't tell me shit about my mechanics!" she hissed into the communicator, pinching her index finger and thumb together to use as emphasis while waving her hand around.

Coulson sighed, "What's wrong with his questions?"

"I don't…want to answer them," she hesitated, losing her gung-ho emotion. Hearing her say made it seem stupid.

"Like what, Accion."

"Like…all the questions where I would have to talk about Tony," she muttered, trying not to articulate the letters in his name.

Coulson rolled his eyes, "There is going to be a point in this mission, where you're going to have to get past that, Accion. Whether you like it or not."

"Buckle your belts, ladies and gentlemen, we are preparing to land," the pilot yelled and Scotty growled.

"I have to go," she groaned deep in her throat before shutting the communicator without a decent goodbye.

Putting on a composed demeanor, even though she really was quite composed in the first place, she strutted back to her seat and sat down. _With a purpose_, she kept telling herself as she walked. _Move with a purpose_.

Straightening her back as she sat, she reached over and pulled her seatbelt on, just as Bruce finished buckling his, and settled his hands into his lap contentedly. Continually, he would gaze at a different part of her body, studying her quizzically. Knowing his interests were definitely peaked after her explanation, she didn't bother telling him to stop. He would eventually. For now, she didn't mind the attention.

Gently the plane landed on the helicarrier. Scotty unbuckled her seatbelt before Bruce could get out of his daze and reach for his, and she advanced towards the pilot and co-pilot seats. They were pressing buttons and pulling levers, preparing the plane for put away. Through the window, she immediately saw the fleeting leather of Commander Fury through a doorway. But lucky for her, she could also see Natasha's glorious red hair waving in the wind, right next to a tall, well-built man in neutral colored clothing. He looked very old-fashioned, with his hair slicked back and his large shouldered coat.

Giddily she grinned and spun around on her heels with a kick in her step. Steve Rogers was here.

Bruce was rising out of his seat when she skipped towards the door of the plane. He reached his hands to the sky and stretched uncomfortably before groaning and pulling off his glasses. They were placed in his pocket and he pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly, blinking away a wave of exhaustion.

"Come along Dr. Banner—Bruce," she corrected herself, a smile of excitement planted firmly on her chin. "It's time to meet your team mates."

"Wonderful," he muttered, stepping up beside her, rubbing his temple.

Slowly, the sound of the engine died into silence and the doors air tight seal released. It lifted up dramatically and the sun came in graciously, hitting Scotty's skin. She let out a satisfied 'ahhhhhh' and stepped down onto the steps, followed by Bruce who was squinting in the sun.

They started towards Natasha and Steve, Scotty occasionally looking over her shoulder to make sure Bruce was still behind her. When she saw that he was, but rather disoriented she couldn't help but smile to herself. It was kind of cute. She gazed up and saw Natasha and Steve awaiting their arrival to their position. Her smile grew wider, "Bruce hurry it up."

"I'm coming," he mumbled, speeding up to keep up with her, his coat and hair blowing in the salty wind.

"Steve!" she called, waving her arm. Even from a distance, she could see his million dollar, all-American smile. His strong hand lifted into the air, open palmed, signifying he had heard her.

Quickly she arrived at their sides, smiling cheerfully up at Mr. Steve Rogers. He smiled down at her and nodded, "Good morning Joni."

"Good morning Steve!" she said, trying not to have a heart attack. "How has adjusting been?"

He pressed his lips together, and cocked his head slightly to the side, "it has not been easy, I can say that whole-heartedly."

His eyes darted up to Bruce who was just getting there. He squinted, "and who is this fellow?"

"Oh, this is Dr. Bruce Banner," she said, gesturing to him before placing her hands in front of her patiently. She watched the two famous men step forward to shake hands, staring at each other rather oddly; they were fascinated by one another but didn't want to say too much.

Steve held his hand out, "Pleasure to meet you Dr. Banner."

"I should say the same, Captain," Bruce nodded, shaking back, looking between the three people before him.

"Word is you can find the cube," Steve inquired, lifting his chin to stare down at Bruce ominously.

Bruce gave Scotty a quick glance, about to ask if it meant the Tesseract, but he must've figured it did for he answered, "Is that the only word on me?"

"It's the only word I care about," Steve replied with a warm smile.

Natasha stepped forward, smirking devilishly, "Accion, gentlemen, I think it would be best if we moved inside. It's going to be a little hard to breathe in a minute."

All three of them turned to her and glared, wondering what she had meant. Bruce looked to Scotty, looking like she might've had the answer, but she looked at him, brows rising, and shook her head. This time was the second time she had ever set foot on the carrier since she had always been at headquarters for training and for work in general. And of course Natasha knew what the carrier could do, since she had been there longer and had more clearance.

A loud boom erupted from under the ship and the three of them, minus Natasha, almost hit the deck to protect themselves. Rumbling followed from either side of the ship, and before anyone could ask what happened, Steve had already darted towards the edge of the deck to look over. Bruce was on his heels and Scotty couldn't help but follow.

The water below was bubbling and foaming around, like they were preparing to sink into the dark depth of the ocean. Steve shook his head, not believing what he was seeing, "Is this a submarine?"

Bruce twisted his lips and glanced towards Steve, "really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?"

Before another comment could be made the bubbles dribbled down the sides of round wings with propellers and hovering mechanisms. They began spinning around and around, spitting water up at them, until they were going so fast that they were in a cloud of light mist. They began to lift into the air, the helicarrier becoming a plane.

"Oh, no, this is much worse," Bruce sighed with indifference, his sarcasm becoming him.

Natasha made a move to touch Steve's large arm, but decided to nudge Scotty's instead, "Let's head inside."

Scotty looked over her shoulder, her long brown braid almost whipping Steve's side. She nodded and gestured for Steve and Bruce to follow. They looked at one another unnervingly and did as told, the four people traveling in groups of two. Bruce and Steve began talking of random things, such as Bruce's nuclear physics and Steve's WWII stories. Natasha on the other hand gave Scotty an unforgiving, and yet caring side look.

"How did it go with Banner?"

Scotty thought for a moment, quirking a brow, "Nothing I couldn't handle. He was cooperative—but hesitant, no doubt."

"Of course," Natasha nodded.

"Who did you have to get?"

"I held down the fort with Agent Hill, while Fury retrieved Rogers and Coulson tried to get Stark," Natasha sighed, stepping in sync through the door with Scotty, their boots clanking down on the metal floors.

Scotty nodded, "I know about that. Didn't go very well, I hear?"

"Not for the most part."

They stayed silent, Steve and Bruce still talking behind them.

"Has Tony showed up yet?" Scotty asked, hoping he had, not just so she could see him, but so they had him.

Natasha sighed again, "what do you think? After how we all parted terms with him…"

"A girl can hope," Scotty grumbled nonchalantly.

"We've got Banner and Rogers…that plus us is a team right there," Natasha offered.

"Bruce is only here to find the Tesseract; otherwise it's us and Steve."

Natasha stayed silent as they went up a set of metal stairs and finally made it to the more official looking part of the ship. Computers lining different parts of the walls, lights blinking, windows looking into different testing rooms, the whole kit and caboodle. Bruce and Steve's eyes lingered in every window.

The Russian agent picked up her pace and entered a door before the rest of them. Steve tried to keep up, but Scotty fell back to talk with Bruce.

"She seems… proficient," he muttered.

"You mean a hard-ass? She can be," she replied.

"That's where we're going to deliberate," Bruce stated, actually beginning to slow down, staring at the door.

Scotty nodded. "Once you go in, I don't think you can back out."

Bruce glanced at her and smirked, "I've come this far haven't I? A little late to try and turn back."

The look on his face almost made her want to laugh. He seemed a little embarrassed to be talking with her, like suddenly he was nervous around people. Or women. Or just Scotty. Millions of things suddenly ran through her head, freaking her out: _What if I did something offensive, or said something offensive, or said something too personal and he got creeped out_.

His awkward smile led up to anxious eyes and Scotty couldn't help but fight the urge to reach out and touch his elbow. The mop of brown hair barely moved as he whipped his head around to look at his arm, then up into her eyes surprised.

"You don't have to go in there if you don't want to. If crowds…make you nervous, I can take you to the lab—"

"No I'll be fine, really," he chuckled, speeding up and walking through the door out into the vast computer room. The table she had sat at before was still there, with Natasha, Steve and Coulson sitting at it. They looked up at judgingly stared at the two of them, like they were alienating the kids who were coming in late to class.

Scotty waved and Bruce pressed his lips together, a faint pink tint appearing on his dark cheeks.

"Welcome Doctor Banner, Agent Accion," Fury's booming voice called.

"Glad you could join the party."

**I liked making Scotty a Captain America fangirl.**

**Hope this chapter is okay for now!**

**Soon, hopefully, we can get Tony in here and finally get a designated name for Scotty (she's Scotty, Steve calls her Joni, her coworkers called her Accion, etc.)**

**I also hope that her injuries were detailed enough xD**

**Read & REVIEW**


	4. He Has Arrived

_"You took my assistant—the assistant that you hired for me—to go and kill terrorists?" Pepper hissed, Tony chasing after her as she stormed up the stairs to his living room._

_Tony shrugged, "It was for a good reason of course. I knew you would understand."_

_Leaning forward to follow them up the stairs with her eyes, Scotty scratched at a hole in her metal armored neck. The hole was deep in her neck, most likely from a bullet. When Tony had shut off her cyborg mechanics, the metal shielding that originally encased her entire body turned back into her normal skin; wherever a bullet hole had formed, the metal didn't flip back. It had felt like it had only been moments before that she was watching him play with his suit, when suddenly she blacked out. She woke up in the same spot, but now with bullet holes in random places on her body, Tony just beginning to escape from his own metal casing, also freckled with bullet holes._

_Pepper came in at the worst moment, when Tony had finished taking off his suit and was beginning to tend to Scottys._

"_What happened?" Scotty had asked him, looking down at her collarbone._

"_Nothing. Just got in a spat with some not so nice people," he shrugged, running a screen over the indents._

_She glared at him, "Yeah and how come I can't remember it?"_

"_Because you weren't awake, okay? You were…in a test drive."_

_Her eyes widened and mouth dropped open, "you turned on all my stuff and I didn't get to see it?"_

"_Well it's a bug I need to fix, kay? I didn't know you wouldn't verbally respond or mentally know what the hell was going on. But you followed orders, and you didn't talk back, so it was kind of a plus on my end," he said, poking himself in the chest with a different tool. It looked like a screwdriver with a flashlight attached to it._

_Pursing her lips, she lifted her hand and smacked his arm with the heel of her palm._

"_Ow," he whined, staring at her wildly._

"_Are those…bullet holes?" Pepper winced, appearing in the doorway, staring at Tony's suit and then at Scotty._

_They both whipped their heads around and stared at her. "Hi Pep," Scotty waved innocently._

"_Hey Pepper…um…yes they are—"_

"_Where the hell did they come from?" she asked, her eyes widening further._

"_Um…from the guns of…terrorists?" Tony answered easily, looking at Scotty's "wounds"._

_Scotty looked at him, "TERRORISTS? You said—"_

"_I said not so nice people. And the last time I checked, terrorists aren't so nice," Tony growled through gritted teeth, smiling at Pepper._

_He had so nonchalantly answered Pepper, but when she asked he danced around the subject. He was always good at that, but maybe it was also Pepper's talent of getting things out of him without even trying._

_Pepper's face began to turn red, and her eyes sparkled with pure anger. Without another word, she spun on her heel and marched back through the door and up the stairs. Tony dropped the tool onto the table and grabbed Scotty's arms, "be right back. Pep wait up!"_

"_Madam, would you like a glass of water? To occupy your time until Master Stark comes back?" Jarvis' soothing voice asked over the intercom._

_Her eyes wandered up to the ceiling where the speakers were, and only nodded sullenly in response, "yes please."_

_The glass of water popped out of the table and she picked it up without looking at it. Taking a sip, Jarvis chimed in, "Your components looked wonderful, Madam. You performed well."_

_She smiled into her water glass and gulped it all down. It set down with a clunk on the counter, "thank you Jarvis. If only I could remember."_

* * *

"I'm trusting you have all been keyed in on what is going on right about now," Fury said, his voice quieter than usual. His arms were folded behind his back.

Natasha stared at everyone around the table. Scotty nodded curtly, and Bruce also acknowledged him with a slight nod. He was standing behind a chair, playing with his glasses. Steve leaned back in his chair and set his arms on the armrests.

"Vaguely," he replied.

Fury eyed him with his good eye and then began to pace. "Over 24 hours ago, a God named Loki infiltrated our headquarters and stole the Tesseract. It is a weapon capable of global destruction—" he described. Coulson sat up straight.

"You might remember it, Captain. Schmidt used it for his weapons back in the 40's," he nodded. Steve gave him a meaningful glance, his eyes filled with hurt and remembrance.

"Our job is to find it," Fury said, ignoring Coulson, stopping and glancing at Bruce before looking at Steve and Scotty, "and take it back."

Steve nodded, "Sounds simple enough."

Agent Hill and Coulson looked at one another without expression, but their faces said it all. They knew nothing about this situation could be simple. Scotty even shared a look with Natasha, both of them visibly worried that it wouldn't be as Steve had hoped. He had seen the Tesseract, but was fully confident it wouldn't be too brutal. Bruce tapped his glasses on the palm of his hand.

"How long will I be aboard?"

Everyone looked in his direction. Fury blinked, "Once you find the Tesseract, you're free to go."

Bruce nodded, "Where exactly are you in that process?"

Fury looked over his shoulder at a man sitting before a computer. The man peeked over his own shoulder before speaking up, "We've been tracking cell-phones, PDA's, and anything else that gives off radiation but we have nothing so far."

Scotty noticed Bruce's face contort slightly, his brow furrowing. He started towards the computer.

"Then you're going about it wrong. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" he asked, turning to Fury.

"Why?" Fury replied apprehensively.

"Call every lab you know and have them put their spectrometers on the roof, calibrated for gamma rays. It'll be a starting point, and if the Tesseract comes into range we might get lucky," he explained, kind of swaying as he spoke, like he was trying to be actively moving instead of standing there awkwardly.

He gestured to Scotty, "Agent Action said there was a lab I could work in? I'll be needing to test alternatives if this fails."

Coulson suddenly gave out a snort, and Steve looked at him oddly. Scotty rolled her eyes, while Fury paid them no attention, only clenching his jaw.

"Accion…take Dr. Banner to the lab," he muttered, looking down at her, nodding his head towards a different door.

Not making eye contact with Fury, her eyes fell on the door and she pushed herself up out of her chair. Bruce turned his head over his shoulder, and then looked at Scotty, his brows raised expectantly. With a crick in her neck, she found bending it doubly useful, losing the crick and gesturing towards the door to ease Bruce's trepidation.

"This way, Bruce," she smiled, stopping to wait for him.

All the eyes in the room trailed his movements as he sped up to be escorted, gauche by all of their attention. They began walking together and a smirk appeared on her face. She was kind of excited to see his reaction to the lab, where he would stay and work. Reaching her arm out, she wrapped it around his elbow and pulled him along. The look on his face read his surprise, yet again, at her touch.

"We've got all the toys, come on," she told him quietly, tugging him through the door. It automatically shut behind them, and Bruce instinctively looked over his shoulder at it.

His eyes fell back on her as she looked for the room number, and he lifted his other arm to pat her hand. It was a hesitant pat, like he was afraid to touch her skin, but he patted nonetheless. The actions made her, eventually, look down at his hand and then his face, her eyes eager. With every step they took, slowly creeping into syncrasy, her long braid, reaching her hips, swung back and forth like a rope.

He half smiled awkwardly, "I can probably find it on my own if you want to go back."

Knowing he was trying to be alone, she smiled devilishly, quirking a brow, "Do you not want me here?"

"No, I rather enjoy your company. You don't talk too much, and when you do talk, you keep the conversation stimulating," he said, shaking his head lightly, his hair bouncing around his temples.

The gray in his hair was suddenly more apparent now, probably from the lighting. It was reflective and was the perfect amount, riding up around his ears and dancing around his different waves of hair. All of it made him look wise beyond his years, add that to his calm demeanor and he could've come off as a saint.

She looked at the room numbers, finally, catching herself from the thought, and pointed. "It's right here," she muttered before going on, "and I think I would like to stay for a few minutes if that's all right. Just to keep you company."

"Be my guest," he nodded with his half smile. The door before them slid open and they walked straight into the lab room. Tables were strewn across the floor, some had computer screens, others had beakers or petri dishes, and one or two were blank; one of the blank ones sat in front of windows that Scotty couldn't really see out of. Computer screens descended down from the ceiling when she reached to turn on the lights, everything sort of humming to life.

Nodding, looking rather impressed, Bruce walked towards the empty table by the windows. He reached out and pulled one of the computer screens with him, pressing it so boxes would appear. Rough fingers dragged across the screen and pulled the boxes around, poking at others so they would be bigger. Graphs, tables, and other charts showed up, and Scotty decided otherwise than to try and figure them out. But Bruce seemed to enjoy working with computers again after having been in India for so long without this advanced of technology. His coat slid off of his shoulders and he tossed it onto the table.

Scotty paced around, poking at a few screens, seeing if they would turn on. Once they did, she would pull her hand away worriedly, hoping she hadn't touched anything important, and then would move onto the next thing. After touching every screen, she stood next to Bruce, trying not to inadvertently stare over his shoulder like a nuisance.

An undetermined graph enlarged itself on the screen, the bars fluctuating every so often. Some on the left would get bigger, while on the right they would get smaller, then vice versa, then they would all go catty wompus. They both stared at it intensely, Bruce examining it, while Scotty sort of tried to look like she knew what it meant.

Finally she had to ask. "So what does this graph mean?" her finger was centimeters away from the screen.

"That is what is measuring the gamma radiation. Every bar on the graph represents one major spectrometer S.H.I.E.L.D put up all over the world," he described, using his hands to emphasize what he was saying. "There's D.C…Britain…India…Germany…Canada…Brazil…Indonesia…Japan…South Africa…and they expand far enough to cover the other parts of their respective continents," his fingers pointed to each different bar that fluctuated.

She nodded, "Wow. So when they stop moving, whichever bar is tallest…that's where the Tesseract is?"

"Correct," Bruce nodded with pride.

"Interesting," she muttered, hovering her finger over the graph. Bruce's eyes fell on them, examining every knuckle and fingernail, every detail. He reached out and attempted to touch her hand; shocked by his movements, she slightly pulled her hand away, looking at him oddly.

Turning a deep pink he pulled his hand away. "I'm sorry," he apologized nervously, "I was just wanting to look at your hand."

"I could see that," she said, her voice low. He half smiled, "I find it fascinating that…despite you claiming you had a horrible accident…your hands are in perfect condition. Your skin is in general perfect condition. No scars or anything."

Getting back into Scotty's robotic side, she laughed at his mentioning it. She remembered telling him her skin had technically been replaced, but he must've forgotten.

"My skin is brand new, theoretically," she chuckled warmly, tucking hair behind her ear so she could clearly look at her "perfect" hands.

"Wasn't there any permanent damage? Nerve damage, tissue damage?"

"All fixed, but I'm lucky enough to still have my fingers if that's what you're really getting at," she laughed a little more comfortably, thinking about it all.

After an accident like hers, and after she got over being constantly annoyed with Tony for his behavior and making her what she was, she was very laid back about the subject. She got over trying to pity herself and how much of a cyborg she was. How much of an art piece she was. S.H.I.E.L.D helped her with that.

Bruce had moved over to the table behind her and leaned an elbow on it casually. He squinted at her, "you haven't told me what kind of accident it was. If you almost lost your fingers it must've been an explosion of some sort. Car crash? Plane crash? Secretly working for a SWAT team?"

The last one made them laugh, their laughs meshing together like music. Nothing sounded sweeter than his verbal happiness, since he physically didn't look like the happiest man. She leaned her backside on the table and continued to stare at her hands.

"Really it could be any of those. Let's just say it was a moving vehicle, and I wasn't the driver," she said through giggles, sticking her left hand out for him to take so he could finally analyze it.

Cringing, she didn't mean for it to really sound like she was blaming Tony. They were desperate, he was completely the bad guy.

"Why won't you tell me?" he wondered, cocking his head to the side.

She shrugged, "it's like my political views…its something meant to be private."

"I understand," Bruce nodded, gazing down at her extended limb. Just like she knew he would.

With ease, he stood up straight and took her hand, rubbing it with his calloused fingers. It was like he was molding the image and feel of her hand in his mind for safe keeping, like a computer scanning a picture. Sensually, his fingers traced her veins, rubbing her knuckles, his thumbs caressing her palm. She was surprised she hadn't turned beet red by that time, the feeling so different from the usual handshakes she had always given. The last time anyone had held her hand in this way was—

A sharp pain ran up her left palm, right in the crook of her thumb, and she pulled the hand away with a gasp. Bruce almost leaped across the room, backing away from her like he had just run over a dog, his eyes wide with worry.

"I'm so sorry—did I hurt you? It was an accident!" he stuttered, his voice full of plea—hoping for forgiveness.

She rubbed the spot on her hand vigorously, looking up at him with a suddenly fretted glance. Stepping towards him, she shook her head causing her hair to sway back and forth in its braid.

"No, you're fine! You barely touched me…I don't know what that was…" she assured him, peeking down at her hand.

"I didn't…mean to…" he sighed, staring down at the floor, his shoulder slumping slightly. A dark cloud was practically forming over him, the air around him dense.

Scotty took another step closer and reached out her left hand to grab his. No pain was present when she grabbed his. Squeezing it tightly, she held his hand between both of hers.

"No pain, see? It wasn't you, Bruce," she muttered, standing close to him so only they could hear each other talk. Her quiet words comforted him, and his tense body seemed to relax instantly.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The computer started going crazy, beeping frantically, flashing red. Bruce pulled his hand from hers, though was surprisingly hesitant about it, and advanced towards the computer, grabbing either side of it like he planned on shaking it around like it was a screaming woman he wanted to calm down. Scotty followed behind him and peered over his shoulder.

From what she could see, the graph had stopped moving, the Germany bar standing taller than the rest, blinking red. Bruce tapped it and a map of Germany appeared on the screen. A blinking red light hovered over Stuttengard.

"It's there…" he whispered, sounding a little shocked.

A smile spread across Scotty's face and she patted Bruce's shoulder, "Amazing job Bruce!"

With that, she sprinted out of the lab and down the hall. Agents were running around preparing things, yelling to one another, talking on communicators. She weaved through all of them until she emerged into the weapons room. Already there, Steve stood in front of his new costume, staring at it somberly. Two cabinets away from his was Scotty's little walk in. She came up behind Steve and patted his shoulder, "You ready? You're going back to Germany!"

He smirked. "Never thought I'd have to," he chuckled. His big blue eyes turned to stare at her, and all she could do was smile at him.

"It'll be fine. Get dressed, we gotta get going."

Hopping over to her own cabinet, she pressed a tiny blue button of the side. It opened to reveal mechanically arms folded into the walls. She stepped in and shut her eyes, relaxing all of her muscles. An arm popped out of nowhere and stuck itself into her neck without warning. Not reacting to anything, her skin slowly peeled up ever so slightly to allow long metal sheets to shoot down and cover her skin in a protective, moveable layer. Other, clunkier arms shot up from the floor carrying four pieces of what look like canons, attaching them to her arms. The same went for her feet. Unfortunately, because S.H.I.E.L.D thought it was necessary, they modeled those mechanics after Tony's suit and even gave her arc reactors, or at least cheap looking ones that worked just as well. They were quieter, giving her more stealth. Another reactor popped out of her chest, leaving one lump on her entire skintight metal body. When her helmet unsheathed itself, it would cover her entire face without eyeholes; it was made of a material where she could look out but no one could look in, and information could be displayed before her. Like Iron Man. But she was a sleeker, silver Iron Man.

Once the arms fell back into their place, she stepped out of the cabinet with two loud, mechanical clunks.

From the corner of her eye, she could Steve staring at her with his brows raised. Barely turning her head, she looked at her, not making any sort of expression. He was already halfway in his suit.

"You look…futuristic! Like a model at a Howard Stark expo," he said, seemingly impressed. Scotty tried not to roll her eyes at the comparison, knowing that he had personally been a friend and coworker of Howards.

She just sighed, and started to leave, "Everybody says that."

Even through her metal skin she could feel Steve looking right through her with his obliviously lost eyes.

* * *

"I'm guessing that's him," Steve whispered as Scotty silently lifted them through the air up onto a building rooftop.

From afar they could see Loki loudly corralling people into a huge group. Multiple carbon copies of him popped up over and over again all around the crowd, all holding a copy of his shining scepter, with what looked like a copy of the Tesseract. Scotty tried to watch all of them, her metal skinned helmet peeling off of her face and folding back into her suit. Her braid fell down her back gracefully. They had been dropped off by Natasha's helicopter from afar so the noise wouldn't attract attention.

"It appears so," she replied, trying to keep track of who could be the real one. When she saw scenes like this in movies, it seemed easy to keep track of the original, but after a while, in real life, things start to mess with your head. She could barely keep track of how many of him there were.

The crowd below was going crazy, but both knew not to do anything until it was the right time. Together, in unison, they kneeled behind the lip of the roof, peeking over, prepared to jump up at any moment.

Steve opened his mouth to say something when Loki's voice exclaimed over the crowd.

"I said. KNEEL!"

The crowd hushed, and lowered themselves to their knees.

"Qualities of a dictator…can move or stop a crowd with only a word," Steve growled, his voice full of resentment.

"Don't let it get to you…we move in when it's time," she reminded him in a sing-song voice; hints of acid and hatred slipped through her teeth as she spoke, the words he said making her feel oddly patriotic.

While they spoke, Loki had given them a speech, appearing and reappearing all around his clones before appearing finally in the middle of the crowd. He lifted his arms up and out, like he was presenting his kneeling masterpiece, smiling psychotically. His scepter glowed brightly.

One lone man stood up suddenly. Steve tensed up, and shifted, preparing himself for flight.

"Not to men like you," was what they could make out from afar.

Loki dropped his arms, "there are no men like me."

"There are always men like you."

The words seemed to resonate with Loki, and definitely with Steve. He immediately stood up and ran to the side of the building, finding the fire escape. Scotty only whipped her head around the watch him run and then pursed her lips frantically, looking back at Loki. Her clunky feet began to desperately dance around, like she was decided whether or not to follow him or whether she should stay and keep watch just on Loki.

Loki was advancing towards the man, his scepter glowing brighter than before. The copies were even beginning to glow.

"Look to your elder, people," Loki called out to the crowd, sticking his scepter out towards the man's chest. "Let him be an example."

Scotty's eyes widened in shock and she stood up immediately, her metal skin helmet darting from her suit and wrapping around her head, sucking her braid up into the helmet.

"Not even," she growled, shooting into the air so she could hover just above the lip of the roof, the arc reactors as quiet as mice. Below she could see Steve sprinting onto the scene, the Loki clones obviously reacting to him, their bodies turning to face his oncoming form.

Pulling her arms up, the two canons attached to one another to make one huge double barreled canon. The arc reactors lit up, the impending whistle sending out a message that she was preparing to shoot. Small, electric blue dots shot out from her hands and exploded beneath all of the feet of the clone Lokis. There was no fire or harm caused to the people around them, the beams only disarmed any magic or computer holograms. Thank God S.H.I.E.L.D had come up with that. The people only began yelling in surprise.

As if he knew she would take care of it, Steve ran right past the puffs of holographic smoke and straight for the old man and Loki. His pace slowed, and his chest seemed to stick out a little further.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everyone else," he said with a strong, booming voice, gesturing to the crowd, "we ended up disagreeing."

Loki didn't look too shocked that his clones had been destroyed, or that anything weird had happened. He looked so calmly at Steve.

"The soldier. A man out of time." Steve couldn't help but smirk with a devilish look on his face.

"I'm not the one who's out of time," he replied.

Scotty flew forward and pointed her barrel canon at him, the whistle louder than the previous one, the canon preparing for something big. Behind her, Natasha's helicopter arrived.

"Loki!" Scotty shouted, right as Natasha prepared a machine gun, "Drop the weapon and stand down!"

Frantically, Loki stared wildly at the three of them. He took a step away and raised his scepter. Steve jumped in front of the old man, covering them with his shield.

"KNEEL," he ordered, blasting a beam out of his scepter.

The blast hit Steve's shield and he flew to the ground with a thud. Without warning, Scotty shot at Loki with a large blue-ish orange beam that fried the concrete, missing Loki as he jumped away from the spot. With a wave of his hand, a line of five Loki clones appeared from thin air and all organized themselves so they could fight.

Steve pulled himself up right as Scotty shut off her arc reactors and slammed to the ground, cracking the pavement under her feet. As quick as a cat, her arms were up again, individually shooting their own beams, dodging shots from the clones. A clone jumped at her and she bent backwards to dodge it before whipping herself back up to head slam another one. That one disappeared.

The one who tried to jump up at her, came from behind and wrapped his scepter around her neck. Tugging at it, she squeezed her eyes shut. On command the small fazor popped out of her shoulder and shot backwards into the clones face. It disappeared. Coughing a bit, she glared at the other three, readying her stance. Two of them attacked at once, shooting beams and running towards her, even stabbing at her with the tips of their scepters. Attempting to dodge one scepter, another lodged itself into her helmet, sending cracks all across the front of her helmet, sparks flying around her and her computers jittering into darkness.

Screaming in panic, she pulled at her mask until it retracted, a green light on her neck beginning to blink, showing that it was repairing herself. Not caring that her face was exposed to everyone, she easily took both scepters from the clones and stabbed each with their own after flipping over their heads to have an advantage. They disappeared in a holographic haze, and the scepters disintegrated in her hands.

She looked over in time to see Steve chasing after Loki, getting ready to toss his shield at the God like a boomerang. The arc reactors on her feet activated and she propelled herself into the air so she could leap to his aid, but the last clone hooked onto her feet, flying up with her.

"Oh no you don't!" she called, kicking it in the face with one of her boots. With a free arm, it grabbed onto that boot, making her unable to kick. She flapped her arms like a bird to see if she had the concentration to shoot anything, but nothing happened.

The green light on her neck was still blinking. "Come on, come on!" she hissed to herself, knowing what she could do. But she would need her helmet to do it. Less than a few seconds later, the blinking slowed.

"That's good enough!" she said loudly, not sounding reassuring to herself. Her helmet crept up her neck and around her face, a few thin cracks evident in the metal.

With all her might, she pulled her legs up into the fetal position, the whistle of missile preparation ringing through her ears. Her feet lit up to incredible brightness and the shocked look on the holographs face was clear. Like a rocket, she straightened out, all of the energy pushing out through her boots, shooting the holograph off of her legs, through the air, until he disappeared.

"Joni!" she could hear Steve cry from below and through her ear piece.

The power from the rocket was enough to help her lose control and hurtle through the air, up and up. She wailed in disorientation, spiraling around and around in confusion. She was unable to tell whether her rockets had stopped yet or not.

Glitching computer stats in her helmet made way for a little less recognizable format. Arrows and targets measured the horizon, the latitude and longitude, the targeting in general for shooting, everything.

"Allow me to be of assistance, Ms. Accion," a smooth, delightful English voice said. As robotic as it was, it sounded like it was smiling.

"JAAAARVIIIIIIS?" she wailed.

As if someone else had taken over, the spiraling stopped and she successfully hovered in the air, trying to get over her nausea. Grabbing the sides of her helmet, she smacked it until it retracted again. Her hair fell around her face, her long braid flowing in the wind. She looked down at Loki and the crowd, Steve and Natasha shooting at him.

"Jarvis—how did you get control of my suit?" she panted, her chest heaving.

"Incoming madam, from your left," Jarvis spoke up through her ear piece, ignoring her question. Steve or Natasha didn't ask who it was, so she was guessing only she could hear him.

"What?" she questioned, looking in that direction.

Natasha's helicopter spun around like a spinning top, rounding about like someone had tossed it like a discus. It was coming right at her, impending doom, the blades moving faster than the actual helicopter. Gasping in fright, she could barely think about moving when she was side swiped by a red and gold bullet just in time.

They hurled through the air, up further than before, tight arms wrapped around her waist. She didn't dare push at whoever it was, for fear of setting something on her suit off, possibly blowing herself up. She hadn't completely figured out all of her new gadgets.

Quickly, they halted, and the arms let go, her savior not saying a word. Right as she turned around to say something, they sped away, down towards Loki. Scotty attempted to say something, to verbally show her confusion.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Ms. Accion," Jarvis' voice said delightfully.

She coughed, "…Ditto."

A voice echoed through her ear piece after the savior landed with a quiet clank.

"Glad I didn't miss the party," the voice said dryly, his tone made of pure, unadulterated sarcasm.

Natasha's woozy voice answered, "Welcome Mr. Stark."

"Tony?" Scotty questioned, not knowing how she couldn't have guessed. She could've put two and two together.

"Joni…nice to see you," his voice said stiffly.

He used her first name. He really wasn't happy to see her.

But it was official.

The creator had arrived.

_This is going to be awkward_.

**Hurray!**

**That was fun!**

**And because I don't know the technical stuff of the fight, the next chapter will be in the plane when they meet Thor.**

**Yay for Tony and Scotty interaction!**


	5. Just Another Thing

"_O as er," a deep muffled, distant voice rumbled through her skull._

"_As er," a different muffled voice replied._

"_Ah es aw I?" the deep one questioned._

"…_e ouh ee."_

_Her heavy eyes opened, looking up at a dark gray ceiling. Vision was crystal clear, but hearing was still getting back to normal. The voices had stopped, but the presence of two people were lingering._

"_Whe do ou thin e'll ake up?" the deeper muffle voice sighed._

_No answer. She blinked a few times, clutching at the soft silk sheets beneath her. They didn't feel like the hospital sheets she had felt before._

"_Soon," Tony's voice came loud and clear._

"_How long do you plan to wait? She can't just stay in your bed," the deep voice said with a tone, expecting to have caught Tony in a situation where he would have to admit the other man was right._

"_As long as it takes. And if that's forever, she'll stay there."_

_Despite her arms feeling like jell-o, she tried to push herself up onto her elbows. Her head lolled on her neck, her toes wiggling under the blanket. With all her might, she pushed herself up onto her hands and pulled her knees up to her chest. Rubbing her eyes, she noticed something odd._

_Being someone with regular back pain, she felt surprisingly limber and fit, no pain. She scratched her arms, her fingers snapping and cracking from stiffness in the process. Under her fingertips, her skin felt unusually soft. She sighed and criss-crossed her legs beneath the blanket. Looking to her left, she saw a space large enough for another person. The blankets were must, like someone had been sleeping there._

_Why had she woken up in the hospital before? How did she get there? How did she survive…_

"_Tony?" she called out, her voice cracking and throat clogging with bile. Desperately, she looked around the dark gray room for a sign of him; she thought he had been in there talking._

"_Scotty?" Tony called back, his face appearing from behind a corner. Jumping out from behind it, he rushed to the side of the bed. Scotty looked up at him worriedly before noticing someone else stick their head out from around the corner. A darker man wearing an expression of mild contempt._

_Squeezing the ends of the silk sheets in her hands, she looked down at her mostly naked body. She was wearing a clearly new bra that she had no recollection of ever putting on, or even buying. Gasping, she pulled the blankets up and over herself as Tony sat down beside her._

_He placed one hand on her shoulder and another hand on her cheek, his thumb stroking it. Hoping he couldn't feel how hot her face was getting, she tried her best to continually gaze into his eyes._

"_Great to see you awake," he said comfortingly._

_Bags had slightly formed under his eyes since she had last seen his face under a hospital light._

"_What happened?" she whispered, trying not to look over at the other man, who was now standing completely in the doorway._

_His hand slipped from her face and landed on her knee, his eyes boring into hers. The look in his eyes had changed instantaneously, like her question had flipped a switch off in his brain. His eyes read nothing but guilt._

"_We…had an accident…but now it's all better," he said hesitantly, mumbling it. Trying to stand, Tony patted her knee. She grabbed his hand, just as his back straightened._

"_Don't beat around the bush…please…you're better than that," she muttered into his wrist, leaning her forehead against it._

_Tony looked at the dark man, the man only nodding in return, turning to leave the moment Tony twisted his body around to face her. He sat down again, pulling his hand away from her and setting it in his lap. Licking his lips, he held his breath, looking down at the floor in thought. Something was eating at him and Scotty was wishing he would just say what. She cocked her head and allowed her greasy hair to cascade over her shoulder._

_He cleared his throat and looked up at the ceiling, his eyes glistening, but no sign of tears. "We uh—" he coughed, "we crash landed outside of the camp and…you didn't make it out so well."_

_As he spoke, his voice breaking, even for a moment, she stared down at her arms, seeing no scars and no damage. Her hands looked like she hadn't even touched a piece of dirt in months._

"_So, I fixed you. And now you're fixed and you're fine," he muttered, his voice stronger._

"_Fixed me? What was wrong with me?" she asked, practically begging for details._

_He opened his mouth to say something but the words hitched in his throat, like he had second thoughts. It shut, his teeth clamping together. He looked at her, examining her form under the sheets._

"_Tony, how did you fix me? You're making it sound like I was close to death—"_

_Stone cold eyes stared at her suddenly, catching her off guard. His eyes read the truth; what she was saying was true._

"_I—I almost…died?" she whispered, her eyes widening. Her face and hands went numb, her mouth hanging open dumbfoundedly._

_Shaking, she gazed down at her trembling hands, running her fingers up and down her arms. The blanket fell into her lap as her hands traveled along her stomach and collar bone. Her eyes fell on his, tears forming._

"_How did you—" her breath hitched._

_Reaching out he grabbed one of her hands and pulled it against his chest, clutching it against his arc reactor. The glowing lump in his shirt, how warm it was, made her tense up a bit, not getting at what he was trying to say. Reaching out with his free hand, he placed it gently on her chest between her breasts._

_Instantly she tried to pull away, but couldn't get far with his hold on her hand. She looked down at his hand, her chest heaving, her face turning bright red. Pressing against her ribs with his thumb, it was like he had pressed a button, the skin compressing under it. Only for a moment, did a blue lit circle light up under her skin, glowing like a beacon in a shallow tide of beige._

_Lowering her chin, she looked at it, her mouth dropping open. Something was inside of her, something like an arc reactor. His arc reactor._

"_It's keeping all of your mechanics running; helps your heart pump blood…your lungs breath air…your filters clean out your organs, everything," he muttered, a sigh dripping off of his lips, like he was regretful in having to say it._

_Forcefully Scotty pulled her hand away, scooting towards the other side of the bed. She pushed the covers off and jumped out, landing stiffly on the opposite side of the bed of Tony. He stood up too, caught off guard by her movements._

"_What did you do?" she hissed, a tear dangling from her lower lid._

"_I fixed you," he said, locking his jaw._

"_WHAT DID YOU DO?" she screamed, poking herself in the chest. The blue light died down._

"_I saved your life!" he bellowed, furrowing his brows like she was some unkempt thing he was tired of trying to convince of something._

"_But did this to me in the process? What did you turn me into, Tony?"_

"_It was necessary to replace organs you had lost—BONES, TISSUE, MUSCLES, NERVES, SKIN—replaced!" he barked._

"_You turned me into a walking junk shop! Why the fuck would you do that Tony?" she shrieked, gripping at her hair wildly, threatening to tear it out._

"_TO SAVE YOUR LIFE!" he yelled, running around the bed so he could stand before her._

_She shook her head, trying to step away, "You should've just let me go!" she cried, tears falling down her cheeks._

"_You would've done the same, you need this," he said in a low voice._

"_I don't need to be some Stark project!" she winced, trying again to step away, but he grabbed her wrists. "I'm not going to be a weapon for you!"_

_Harshly, he pulled her forward, holding her as tight as he could without choking her. Without thinking she wrapped her arms up and around his sides, clutching at his broad shoulders. Her pitiful tears stained his shirt as she wept against him._

_She was a monster. A piece of Stark._

_Finally, heartbreakingly, sending a shiver down Tony's spine, she drawled out against his chest._

"_Why would you do this to me?"_

Steve roughly shoved Loki into a seat, the cuffs on his wrists barely budging.

"Sit tight and stay put," he ordered.

Natasha settled into her seat on the helicopter and started up the engine with the co-pilot. Steve left Loki's side and took a seat next to Scotty, who's elbows rested on her knees, her head dangling between her shoulders tiredly. Comfortingly, Steve placed his hand on her shoulder.

"You did a mighty fine job out there Joni, very fine," he complimented with a happy smile. Scotty peeked up and out of the parts in her bangs, only seeing the legs of Tony's suit across the area of the helicopter.

The helicopter lifted into the air and she dropped her head again, looking down at the floor, sighing. "Thanks Steve," she muttered.

"When you defeated those clones? Inspirational! Had me shivering in my boots with tremendous astonishment. You really know what you're doing," he continued to compliment, noticing she was obviously down.

And why shouldn't she be? After being set aside by Tony after almost getting hit with a helicopter, she had just floated up above everything watching. She hadn't done anything because she didn't want to get near Tony—didn't want to cause tension or have to face him in any manner. What if he didn't have her back? Sure he saved her from being crushed, but would that transition into battle with Loki?

So, like a fraidy cat, she hovered above the scene, Tony taking Loki out with one hit, Jarvis reminding her that something needed to be replaced on her suit. The fight ended quickly, but it could have ended quicker with her help. But Iron Man was there, so why did it matter.

Like the nice guy that he is, though, Steve still encouraged her. As if by magic, he even knew something was going on between she and Tony, having given Tony a couple glances. The golden mask hissed and revealed his face, his rather blank face.

"You should've seen it Mr. Stark…before you arrived, she took out a whole troop of clones…Loki here is a witness to the extraordinary event," Steve offered, looking at Tony, gesturing to Loki.

Loki glared up at the metal encased man, "You didn't miss much."

"That's enough out of you," Steve slightly growled.

Groaning, Scotty lifted her head and stood up out of her seat, running a hand through her loose hair, passing Tony to walk to the back of the helicopter. Steve pressed his lips together and let out a quiet breath of defeat through his nostrils. Barely, Tony watched her pass, before looking back at Steve.

"I bet she did well," he muttered.

Scotty, who had honestly covered her ears to block out any kind of noises, would've loved to have heard that. But all she could feel were the vibrations of Tony walking up to Loki.

"So, tell me prima ballerina, if you're strong enough to steal such a thing as the Tesseract, how did you get caught so easily?"

"When your only means of assistance are sloppy look-a-likes, you would be overruled in a moments notice as well," Loki said monotonously, not looking Tony in the eye.

Natasha gazed over her shoulder, "it's best to leave the interrogations for when we get back to the helicarrier Mr. Stark."

Tony stared at the back of Natasha's head with a crinkled brow and mouth twisted in annoyance. "If you say so, _Agent _Romanoff."

With that, silence enveloped the helicopter. Steve just slapped his hands onto his knees and pushed himself up and out of his seat so he could pace around the floor. Eventually, he made it over to Scotty's side, purposefully trying to seem like he wasn't just targeting her in the first place—he took his time to get to her. He placed his hand between her shoulder blades.

"I wasn't fibbing when I said you did outstanding back there," he whispered, "don't doubt yourself just because someone else in a robotic suit showed up."

"It's not just because he's in a robotic suit," she sighed, keeping her voice in a whisper as well, looking down at her feet.

He rubbed circles into her back, half smiling, "whatever it is, don't let him get to you."

Also managing to half smile, she gazed up at him and nodded, "Thank you Steve."

Standing up on her tip toes, they hugged awkwardly. He pulled away and smiled at her, something glinting in his eye; he was remembering Peggy most likely. Glancing down at his feet, he turned away and proceeded towards the front of the copter. Scotty didn't dare follow him with her eyes, for fear of making eye contact with Tony, who she could feel staring at her.

From the corner of her eye she saw him move, coming towards her slowly. She stiffened, expecting him to say the worst.

Just like Steve did, he came up right next to her, whispering. "I didn't know I would have to be trade marking my suit designs," he said, trying hard to make it sound like a tease and not some snarky comment.

"It wasn't my decision, it was S.H.I.E.L.D," she tried to whisper, but it came out broken until she could clear her throat and finish her sentence.

"I figured as much…but hey, how about you and your boyfriend Lieutenant Eagle over there?" he joked, gesturing to Steve. Crinkling her nose in semi-disgust, and fright from his weird comment, she looked up at him as if he was a man offering her candy from a van. The play on words with the name Tony knew all too well was a nice touch, though.

Randomly, a shot of pain ran through the crook of her left thumb again. Carefully she grabbed it and rubbed profusely.

Seemingly, he stared at her for a moment, examining her body language and especially her left hand.

"…how have you been?" he asked.

Blinking a few times, she looked up at him, averting her gaze immediately after coming in contact with his intense stare, "fine."

More silence and staring.

"You know, I'm trying not to make this awkward. Since it's been like…" he looked up at the ceiling and held a breath before letting it out with a whoosh, "a year and a half since the last time we saw each other."

"Whose fault is that?" she blurted out. She regretted it soon after, but she couldn't help but say it. Luckily, he wasn't too taken aback.

"Well—" he began, stopping for a second to gather his thoughts, "I'd to like to think both of ours. If I remember correctly we both aren't very good at talking to people on the phone."

"Then why didn't you visit. You knew where headquarters was…you could've done something. You could've asked Pepper for help!" she suggested, shrugging and crossing her arms with a huff.

He furrowed his brows and looked around like he could search for someone who could agree with his next statement, "I was busy!"

"Designing a sky-scraper!" she hissed, finally looking him dead in the eye, whipping her braid around. She wasn't necessarily angry, just a little annoyed.

Lifting a fat, red metal finger, he pointed at her face, "the most green, eco-friendly sky-scraper in New York. Run by alternative energy."

She just scoffed in return, crossing her eyes and wiggling her fingers around like some spectacle, "OOOOOO!"

Rolling her eyes, she walked around him. His eyes followed her and he nodded in agreement, "It's very OOOOOO, actually."

A shiver crept up her spine and she couldn't help but feel like she was back in the past. They bickered like she hadn't even left. In the year before she left, that's what their relationship had dwindled to—rude comments and jokes about one another. Bickering like two old men who had grown up together or had met in the war. Sarcastic bickering. The best part about that now was that they weren't too hostile. The whole situation was just another thing they could bicker about.

Steve crossed his arms and walked towards Tony until they were in close proximity to talk. He blinked a few time, giving Loki a few looks, "I don't like it."

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony asked, also giving Loki a look.

"I don't remember it ever being that easy," Steve sighed, crossing his arms, "this guy packs a wallop."

Judgmentally, Tony examined Steve. "Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow," he said like he ignored what Steve had just said. "What's your thing? Pilates?"

"What?" Steve asked confused.

"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle," Tony said, giving Steve one of the most insulting smirks he could ever give.

The two men stared at each other with cold eyes, examining their suits. Scotty looked over her shoulder to stare at them, confused by their banter.

"Fury didn't say he was calling you in," Steve replied.

"Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."

A flash of lightening and thunder exploded around them, no one flinching except for Loki. Steve narrowed his eyes at him, Scotty stopping in the middle of the helicopter to look out of the front of the plane, crossing her arms. Tony turned to also look around the copter, taken out of a trance by the thunder and lightening.

Another flash and crash; Loki flinched again.

Steve nodded towards him, "What's the matter, scared of a little lightening?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki muttered, shaking his head slightly.

Glaring, Tony raised his chin in expectation of an odd answer, "And that's supposed to mean?"

A random crash of thunder vibrated the helicopter and was soon followed by a loud crash on the roof , just in front of the blades that weren't in use. Natasha had exchanged it for the propellers on the helicopters sides. Everyone steadied themselves, all looking up at the ceiling.

Without a sound, Tony's helmet shut and he pressed the button to open up the back hatch of the helicopter. Steve and Joni followed him, Steve squinting from the wind.

"Tony what in the hell are you doing?" Scotty called.

Before he could answer, there was a bang on the hatch and a man stood before them, decked out in ancient armor, wielding a hammer. Scotty and Steve prepared to pounce, but the man slammed Tony back further into the copter, knocking them all down like dominos. All of them writhing on the ground under Tony's weight, the man advanced on Loki, grabbing him by the arm and jumping out of the helicopter into the clouds.

"Loki!" Tony growled as he got to his feet. Scotty stood up and her helmet encased her head, prepared to follow him if he was going after Loki. They weren't going to let him get away.

"Stark, Joni, hold it! We need a plan of attack!" he called over the wind.

"I already have a plan," Tony muttered, looking over his shoulder, "attack."

Not saying another word, he leapt out of the helicopter, gliding out of sight. Without looking back, Scotty walked to the end of the ramp and jumped up, not hearing any protest from Steve.

The two bullets sped through the air, turning on their jets to push themselves further through the clouds towards a valley of forests and cliffs. From afar they could see Loki and the other God; a large blonde man with his hammer. She could only guess it was Thor, after a year of mythology in high school.

Tony sped up and flew ahead of her, going right at Thor, getting him from the side. The two men crashed into the woods, toppling over dozens of trees in their path. Scotty propelled herself forward as fast as her rockets could get her so she could fly ahead of them.

"Jarvis you still there?" she called as she targeted their collision point with the Iron Man suit layout.

"Always," he answered matter-of-factly.

"Is there anyway you could power up my reactors? I'm gonna need a boost," she said indignantly as she stared at the two men who just smashed through the forest, Tony's rockets driving them through.

Coming closer to the impact point, she awaited Jarvis' answer, but didn't receive one. On the side of her screen, a large blue bar appeared, shooting up to a certain point and then blinking. "You have been given a 'boost' madam," Jarvis said.

All she did was smirk and set her canons to her landing setting where something like steam would push out to help her stop slowly. Another thrust forward and she landed on the ground before the two of them, holding out her arms, steam pouring out. They slammed into her hands and her elbows almost buckled beneath them; but holding her own she pushed against them, digging her heels into the dirt. They were slowing down now, so Scotty took her chance and wrapped her fingers around Thor's cape, pulling him away from Tony and hurtling him over her head and away from them.

She stumbled from the force of his landing. Behind her, Tony was grunting as he stood up. Thor was on his knees now, picking up his hammer. With rage in his eyes, he looked up at the two iron clad beings and swung his hammer at the closest, Scotty.

Gasping, she jumped away, landing beside Tony, whose helmet opened to reveal his face.

"Do not touch me again!" he ordered.

"Then don't touch my stuff," Tony replied simply, his voice low.

Standing on his own two feet now, Thor shook his head, "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

Scotty opened her mouth to call him by name, but Tony's sarcasm was faster than the horses he liked to bet on at the derby.

"Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" he shrugged with a English accent, gesturing to Thor's cape.

Immediately Scotty rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, her left hand rubbing her helmet where her forehead would be. "I sometimes just can't understand it—do you ever _think_ before you talk?"

"What's that supposed to mean? I thought that was quirky!" he said incredulously, his head turning in her direction. "You used to like my jokes!"

"He is a Norse God, now is not the time for jokes," she snapped, pointing at Thor.

"Never is there a time _not_ for jokes. You need to lighten up at a time like this, I miss the carefree you," he said, acting insulted, looking back at Thor.

"The carefree me? The one that was only carefree because you didn't let me do anything," she retorted, also looking at Thor.

"You know, I think S.H.I.E.L.D has turned you into a prude."

Moaning in surprise, her mouth dropping open and she turned to him, "Ah? How so!"

He pointed to her entire body, from head to toe. "That outfit of yours. It's all skimpy and tight and snug. Girls who wear stuff like that are just asking to be looked at so then they can just…shoot men down," he enacted, using one hand as a man and the other as a gun.

A face as red as fire behind her mask, she tried not to angrily reply. Instead she pointed to Thor, "This is Thor, Norse God of thunder! Brother of Loki! Now. Is not. The time."

"If this is to be a time of introductions, I can speak for myself maiden!" Thor bellowed.

Tony stepped in front of her. "Than speak. Explain yourself, THOR; why did you take Loki from our custody?"

"Because he is my brother, and is to be dealt with back in Asgard—with our people," Thor muttered, tightening his grip on his hammer.

"Brother?" Tony questioned. Scotty slumped her shoulder and groaned quietly, "I just said that earlier. You never listen."

He ignored her and stepped towards Thor, "your brother has killed almost a hundred people and stolen something from us. He'll be taken care of here. Then you can take him home to mommy and daddy, kay?"

Thor lifted his hammer a bit higher, like he was preparing to throw it. Scotty reached out to Tony's arm.

"I don't think you should've said it like that," she muttered.

"He can handle it, look at him! He—"

Before he could finish, Thor's hammer slammed into Tony's chest and he went flying back. Scotty jumped away and landed up on a low tree branch, preparing everything she had to stun. Thor held out his hand and the hammer came back to him. He only had it for a moment when a large beam of blue sent him flying through the trees.

Scotty jumped down from the branch and met up with Tony, "You all right?"

"A little dented…the wind slightly knocked out of me…but I think I'm fine. What is that?"

"The famous hammer of Thor. It's how he controls everything. It has some really confusing name that I don't know how to say," she sighed. "But it's powerful, so I think we need to bring out the big guns."

As she spoke, she was rubbed at her left palm again, only a bit of pain having nagged at it. He barely noticed, or tried not to. He cocked his head to the side.

"Ehhhh I don't know what you're talking about." Scotty slumped her shoulders again and put her hands on her hips.

"I do too. With how strong that hammer is, and how thin my armor is, I won't be able to handle a fight with him. You need to turn on my mechanics," she said matter-of-factly, finding this time oppurtunistic.

Tony hesitated in saying anything, but Jarvis spoke up for him.

"She is correct Mr. Stark. Judging from the reverberations your suit received from the blow, and from the myths about the thing, the hammer is quite powerful," his voice said in a slight coo, Scotty and Tony just staring up at each other. "Also, by the statistics and layout of Ms. Accions suit, as sleek as S.H.I.E.L.D's design is, will in no way protect her from an attack from the hammer—let alone protect against anything as you would have hoped they would make for her, sir."

Scotty furrowed her brows, "Wait, what?"

"I don't think she'll need it, Jarvis. Besides, who knows how much this guy can do?" Tony said quickly, dismissing what Jarvis had said.

Scotty's helmet peeled away to reveal her face. She was pissed—beyond pissed.

"Are you seriously doing this _right now_? I can't believe you! You said you gave this to me for a reason—I need this! I could die!"

"You won't die, because I won't let that happen!" Tony said nonchalantly, just as Thor ran back into the clearing.

He held up his hammer, "prepare to battle! I shall be the victor!"

"If you're so afraid, then sit this one out," Tony advised before rocketing over to Thor, beginning a punching battle.

Crawling across her face slowly, she glared at him, "I'm not sitting out another one just because of you. I came to S.H.I.E.L.D to avoid that."

Rocketing into the air, she prepared her canons to shoot stun bolts at Thor every time Tony would move out of the way. But the two men sort of mashed together, so she knew it wouldn't exactly work. She put down her canons and flew down to surround them, circling them like a hawk.

Thor let out a thunderous roar and pointed his hammer at Tony, a bolt of lightening shooting straight at Tony's chest. Tony slid away into a pile of trees, the lightening diminishing. Thor chuckled slightly and Scotty glared at him, landing on the ground before him, lifting her canons to point them in his face.

"Put down the hammer," she said rather quietly, his tall and bulky frame towering over her.

He slightly scoffed, "I will not be engaging in battle with a maid."

"That's why I'm asking you, politely, like the lady that I am, to put the hammer down," she said, heightening the octave of her voice to emphasis her slight sarcasm.

Shaking his head, he glared down at her, "Would you ask your toughest soldier to put down a weapon during a fight?"

"No, but you said you wouldn't fight me," she shrugged.

For a moment, he stared at her like he didn't know what to think of her, but she was guessing it wasn't good. Slowly, he took a step back and lifted his hammer.

"Then if you insist," he muttered before swinging at her.

Without a sound, she bent backwards, thinking only of the matrix. Once the hammer had passed, she stood up straight and started firing stun bolts at him, only to have them bounce off of his armor.

He threw a punch and a jab of his hammer at her, but she luckily blocked them and sent him a punch to the face and chest that only hurt her hand and not him. Punching his hammer into the air, more lightening came down, shooting at the ground around her. Briskly, she danced away from them, hoping they wouldn't hit her in any way, not knowing of the consequences.

"Madam—" Jarvis said rather urgently.

Unfortunately he didn't get to finish, and Thor slammed his hammer into her side with a crunching blow. The moment of impact came as a surprise, and Scotty could feel ribs cracking and breaking as she flew to the side and smashed into a tree.

She slid to the ground, lying there, attempting to roll around in pain, clutching her side. It wasn't the worst pain she had ever felt, comparatively to the accident; but in her lifetime before the accident, she had never really broken any bones. She hadn't usually felt immense pain such as this.

The entirety of her chest ached, her right side feeling like it was completely gone. She hoped to God that nothing had been punctured, or that she was bleeding. Of all things she hated blood.

Reaching up to her helmet, she tried to scratch at it and pull it off—she needed air. It slid back into her suit and she coughed into the night, breathing deeply, wincing and wheezing.

Thor called after her, "You insisted."

From what she could hear, Tony had attacked him and they had commenced battle again. Scotty's hair began to stick to her face and neck from all of the sweat that was secreting from her body, like her body was trying to sweat out a cold. She flipped onto her stomach, leaning on her elbows so she could hold up her head which was beginning to pound.

Jarvis began to speak again, sounding downtrodden because he had failed to warn her. "Madam, your bones are slowly repairing themselves. Would you like me to call Mr. Stark?"

She let out a gasp of pain and shook her head, "No, no—he's—busy."

For an eternity afterwards, she felt like their fight had gone on forever. She had only slightly gotten used to the pain when Steve had arrived to break up the fight. Numbly she had felt the wind blow against her face when Thor had hit his hammer against the shield, but she didn't really react to it; just lay there.

Thor agreed to go with them, to follow Loki and take him once they had gotten the Tesseract back.

"Now that that is settled, let's go and pick up Loki," Steve muttered triumphantly. He looked around and then gazed at Tony, "where is Joni? I saw her jump out of the copter after you."

Thor, who had already started towards the cliff where he had left Loki, turned back to look at the two men. Tony had shrugged and shook his head.

"The maid? She is off over there. She had challenged me," he said nonchalantly, pointing off in some random direction. Basically, his hand gestured to the entire forest.

Steve looked to Tony, who's head had bowed, like he was intently listening. Jarvis was speaking to him.

"I believe it would have been best to have allowed her to—"

"Oh no, Scotty!" Tony called out, realizing what Jarvis was referring to.

"What, what's the matter?" Steve asked, preparing to go on a full fledged search, looking out to the woods like they were a mortal enemy.

Tony nodded towards Thor, "This guys hammer took her out. She doesn't have the right equipment to protect herself. Scotty!"

The two men spread out and searched the edge of the forest. Desperately they pushed trees around and branches, hoping to find her. Scotty could hear them calling; "Joni!" "Scotty!" "Joni!" "Scotty!"

She coughed quietly and raised her voice, finding it hard to talk without pain.

"Over here."

Fast footsteps came towards her and she felt two strong hands touch her sides, right where the pain was. She gasped and yelped through gritted teeth, writhing in the dirt. Steve's voice came quietly in her ear.

"You're all right, Joni…we're here. Stark! I found her!"

More footsteps came, more mechanic and heavy. They stopped a few feet away. Steve attempted to flip her over with her assistance, and managed to pick her up bridle style, laying her comfortably enough against his chest so that she wouldn't hurt her side too much. Imperatively, Steve turned to Tony.

"I think she'll be fine. It must be her ribs, because when I tried to hold her sides she recoiled," he explained. Tony said nothing.

Squinting up at Steve, she could see him glaring at him. "Was there anyway you could've been there to help? Where were you?"

"Busy getting myself back together. The guy shot me with lightening."

"Well from what I can see, you are at full power. It must've given you a healthy dose of an electrical wake up call," he said strongly, his tone full of accusations.

Again, Tony didn't reply. Steve sighed. "Let's get her back to the copter. You can explain yourself later."

Steve walked away, taking careful steps so as to avoid moving in the wrong way, harming her further. For a big guy, Tony noted, he was as gentle as a mouse. Jarvis slightly sighed, something Tony had never heard him do before.

"Her bones are repairing themselves. She'll recover quite soon…not too long after we reach the helicarrier. Luckily, you made everything inside her self repairing even if her mechanics aren't necessarily active," he rambled slowly, keeping Tony's spirits up.

"But I should've turned them on…I know, Jarvis," he sighed. Regretfully, he started following Steve, staring at the ground, thinking about what would've happened if he had turned them on.

"It's just another thing I have to add to my shit list."

**Oh hey guys!**

**Hope this chapter was okay for interaction between them. I made how "comfortable" she was around him really quick because, honestly, who can stay mad at Tony forever.**

**Besides his mortal enemies.**

**BUT  
this chapter might require some reviews from you guys. Reviews are the fuel to my gas tank; the fertilizer to my plant; the Hulk to my Banner.**

**I'm not going to be one of those writers who does, "I NEED THIS MANY REVIEWS BEFORE THE NEXT CHAPTER"**

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	6. It's a Pride Thing

_Pepper hated how quiet Tony's house could get. It was always so silent whenever he was working—and he didn't want a dog—and Jarvis had been limited to speaking to Tony in the workshop down below. She would meander around the house, forced not to work, and would try to find something to do. Every program on TV had been watched, Tony had a limited amount of movies that she had already seen, and the news was too sad for her._

_Just to make sure she was alone, she would always call out for Jarvis. And then he wouldn't answer. And then she would continue to talk to the air angrily about how no one is talking to her and how everything is quiet and she misses how loud it could get when Scotty was there._

_After Scotty had left that night, she watched Tony go upstairs quietly and stay up there, in silence, until the very next morning. When he emerged, he spoke as if nothing had happened. As if his friend hadn't left and that he had been affected by her but had been unaffected by her. Like what she had cemented into him was there, but as if it had been cemented there all along and she wasn't the cause. He had wiped her away like a smudge on his suit. Unable to do anything, so helpless, she watched as he would walk around, and laugh and work and drink and be merry, dying a little inside. It was like his parents had died all over again._

_And, feeling bad for thinking it, she knew it was because Scotty was his baby. As much as Iron Man would be considered one of his greatest achievements, and if they ever had kids they would be too, but Scotty was a larger achievement than some suit or natural born child. She was a human who had been put together again with machines—and she was still human._

_He was proud to have made her well again, and he was guilty for having only one way to do it. He knew her well enough to know, and tell Pepper about it immensely while Scotty was in the coma, that she would hate him. She would ask him why he would turn her into something like this. Why take her body and make her a Stark product, just so he could save a life. To be a hero._

_Tony didn't want to be a hero, nor did he see himself that way. This being one of the reasons._

_But Pepper thought it was time for him to man up. She wanted her friend back. She wanted the bridges to be rebuilt, built sturdier, so she could get to her friend. And that's what she planned to do; to put that bridge building into motion._

_Storming down the stairs, she pressed in her code to get inside, staring straight at Tony as he sat at his desk, squinting at something. He was playing with it, the light reflecting against his glasses, his music blasting. When the door opened, he was taking a sip of his disgusting green drink that Pepper had no idea what it was made of. Setting it down carefully, he looked up at her and smirked._

"_Well hello, hello Ms. Potts. May I help you with something?" he asked, shifting in his seat, wiggling his eyebrows devilishly. Slapping her hand onto the table, she picked up the remote and turned off the music. He was unfazed and continued to smirk at her, his tongue licking at his teeth behind closed lips._

"_This needs to stop. I can't take it anymore," she muttered, her hands placed firmly on her hips._

_He furrowed his brows, "I don't—"_

"_I want my best friend back," she said before he could finish. "You get to be selfish, and so do I. I want you to put aside your differences and make up with Scotty."_

_As she spoke he rolled his eyes and slid off of his stool, walking around to go towards another mini bar._ _She followed him close behind. "And then I want you to convince her to come back and be with us."_

"_She's with S.H.I.E.L.D now, Pep, I can't tell her to drop the job she left for so she can come back," he said matter-of-factly, thinking he stumped her._

"_I'm not asking you to make her leave S.H.I.E.L.D, I'm asking you to convince her to be friends with us again, and to stay with us for a while, and to _like_ us again."_

_Tony shrugged, "I'm sure she still likes you Pep, it's me she hates."_

"_Make her like you again," she said monotonously._

_He sighed, acting like he knew whatever she said wouldn't work, "how do I do that?"_

"_You admit your wrongs, and give her what she wants," she shrugged. Tony set his cup on the bar and lay his hands flat against it's cool top, looking up at the ceiling._

"_You've known me for a while Pepper. How well do you think that's going to go over?"_

_"I think she'd appreciate it—"_

_"I mean with me. I don't do well apologizing. And I don't do well with giving some people what they want."_

_Rolling her eyes, she placed her hands together, setting them under her chin. "Please Tony. Haven't you noticed how quiet your house has been for the past 8 months?" He only shrugged._

"_It soothes me," he muttered._

_She stepped closer, "I miss her, Tony. I miss her sarcasm, and her whining, and her jokes, and her crying during sad movies, or those noises she would make when she would think she was alone—I miss her being here, feeling comfortable around you. Please, Tony, you have to convince her to come back."_

_His shoulders slumped, "She wouldn't listen to me anyway, you know that! She's just as stubborn as you."_

"_She'll listen, Tony. She loves you and she cares about your opinion," Pepper muttered, rubbing her forehead. "You made her what she is."_

"_Don't you think that's why she hates me?" Tony finally growled, glaring over his shoulder._

_With tired eyes, he stared at her like she was asking him to lose the biggest battle of his career. But she wasn't having any of it. She stood her ground, tapping her foot against its hard surface._

"_Pride isn't worth protecting if you have to lose someone you love," she muttered._

"_She's in love with the idea of me," he replied, staying stoic, replying to her earlier comment. "She's in love with the me she got to know in captivity…and the idea of the me that saved her life because I wanted it to be saved."_

_"That's what you did—you saved her—"_

"_I destroyed her," he said loudly, overpowering her voice. "I destroyed the life she wanted, and I have to live with that. Seeing her face reminds me—because I feel like I would have to be by her side in case she breaks because of my faulty mechanics. Because of my selfish idea of, 'maybe if I save this life, I'll feel good about selling terrorists my weapons'! I made her a weapon."_

_Pepper stepped forward, "To protect her—"_

"_To protect my ego!" he spat._

_She shook her head. "She's on her own now, everything is fine! You did great! Tony, you can't keep doubting yourself! What you did was amazing, you can't regret what you've given her."_

"_What, a reason to have a vendetta against me?" he scoffed._

"_She's thankful and you know she is," Pepper said back, acid dripping off of her tongue._

_He stayed quiet, slowly shaking his head. Never would he believe her—that is what that head shake meant. Nothing could convince him otherwise of his guilt._

"_You're a hero, Tony," she pleaded._

_Continually, he shook his head, stalking towards the door of the workspace. She stared to shake her own head, trying to think of something to say to him so he wouldn't leave just yet. Nothing was coming to mind. Everything that did would probably put him in a worse mood than he is now, and that would leave her in his dust as he would speed away._

_Finally, her face scrunched up in desperation, "Why can't you see yourself as she sees you?"_

_He stopped, his body tensing._

_Thinking she wasn't going to say anything else, Tony pulled the handle of the door and left, taking all of his apparent guilt with him._

_As usual, he didn't need to speak for Pepper to know what he was thinking. Scotty would never forgive him; he didn't deserve forgiveness; he'll always do something wrong for her; nothing will get better; he's an enemy._

_Hoping with all her might, Pepper wished Tony and Scotty would find a way around the problem. To find a way to get through the mess that Pepper couldn't even describe, and make things right. If they didn't, who would?_

* * *

"Trust me, Steve, I'm fine," Scotty insisted as he escorted her off of the helicopter.

The pain from her self-healing hadn't gotten any worse during the copter ride, in fact it started to subside as her injuries finished repairing. Steve stayed by her side at the back of copter, Tony standing far off towards the front, while Thor sat staring at Loki somewhere between them. Natasha had questioned what had happened, but Tony only gestured to Thor and his hammer. The spy could put two and two together.

Eventually, just before the helicopter landed, Scotty was able to stand up and move around comfortably without too much pain. Just in case though, Steve wasn't too far behind her, often glaring slightly at Tony. Why the 40's gentleman was now getting a little protective, she wouldn't know, but she took a few guesses that made the most sense.

"If you're sure," he said, sounding rather unsure. "I'll be right behind you if you need help."

She chuckled and looked down at the floor of the hallway they had just entered. "Thanks Steve, but I think I got it."

"Fair enough," he admitted, lifting up his hands.

Tony and Thor both kept their distances from one another and from the ones around them; though Thor stayed particularly close to Loki. Natasha and another agent held him by both the arms, preparing to lead him down a different hallway.

"Everyone change and meet on deck immediately for debriefing," Natasha called out, glaring at all of them, turning to pull Loki down the other hallway towards his containment center.

Each of them nodded, continuing to walk down the original hallway, Steve and Scotty keeping the lead. No one noticed Thor break off to follow Natasha and Loki. Quietly Tony followed the two ring leaders, his helmet still covering his face. Both his and Scotty's boots loudly clapped against the metal flooring compared to Steve's careful steps.

Once they made it to the changing room, Scotty pointed to a room just across the hall. When she had initially been told about the Avengers initiative, they showed her where the uniforms were and where all the right rooms for the right people were; Tony had his own room, designed specifically to store his suit. Twisting her body carefully, she looked over her shoulder at Tony.

"That's where you change. A machine is ready to store the suit, just press the small red button to your right," she explained, leading Steve over to their changing room.

All he did was nod, keeping his mouth shut. Mechanically, he walked up to the door and allowed it to open for him, then proceeded inside, disappearing. For a moment, Scotty hesitated in going inside her room, watching him quizzically, wondering why he hadn't spoken.

She and Steve approached their appropriate cubicles and each opened them. Steve slid off his mask and let it rest at the nape of his neck, carefully watching Scotty step into her cabinet to have her suit put back inside of her skin. Once it was over, she stepped out, cracking her neck and stretching. Grabbing at her tight S.H.I.E.L.D body suit, she tried to stick out her chest and pull it taught, but the slight side pain kept her from doing so, causing her to cringe.

When she looked over to Steve, he hadn't gotten any further out of his suit.

"Why aren't you out of your suit?" she asked, quirking a brow.

He didn't say anything, just looked her up and down, his body half-turned towards his cabinet. "How could you be so nice to Stark? He let you get hurt," he muttered, pressing his lips in contempt.

She rolled her eyes, "I've only said one thing to him since we got back, Steve. Don't put the blame on him anyway, I tried to take Thor on."

"In my time, Joni, a woman in her right mind wouldn't have spoken to a man again if he allowed something like that to happen to her," he stated, shifting his weight. "We were taught to protect women—not that you can't protect yourself."

"Uh-huh," Scotty snickered, looking down at her suit, her delicate hands smoothing it out.

"What I'm trying to say is…Stark was out of line, allowing you to do that."

Scotty shook her head. "Trust me when I say, Steve, it wasn't his fault. He was busy recovering from a hit," she said, looking up at the ceiling.

Lifting up his hand to stop her, he nodded his head, "I trust you, Joni. But I don't want to see it happen again."

Nodding silently, she stared across the room in thought. In her mind, so many parts of her thoughts were screaming for her to blame Tony, blame Tony. But in her heart she couldn't, for some reason. Sure he didn't want to turn her mechanics on, again, but it wasn't too drastic. It was poor judgment on his part, but she felt like she couldn't keep blaming him for things like that. Maybe when she stepped in front of Thor, it became her liability to be careful. And yet, still, a part of her brain was focused on hating Tony, as always. Finding a reason to be mad.

"_Agent Accion_," a deep voice called over the intercom, "_report to the bridge as soon as possible_."

The voice was Fury's. Peeking at Steve, she rushed towards the door, jogging slightly, but not running. She was afraid the ribs wouldn't agree with her.

Jogging through the door, she stared across the large black table at Agent Hill, Coulson, Natasha and Fury, standing with a couple of medics. Thor stood not too far away. She stopped and stared at everyone awkwardly, merging her brows together.

"You needed me, sir?" she asked.

With one of his hands he motioned for her to come over to where they were standing, the medics putting their equipment down beside their feet. Scotty hesitated, figuring they were going to check out her ribs. Natasha, Hill and Coulson waited expectantly, folding their hands in front of them.

"Come here, Agent Accion," Fury said, reminding her to come over.

"If they're here to take a look at me, I'm feeling better," she insisted.

"I would appreciate it if you followed orders, Agent Accion," he stated exasperatedly, folding his arms behind his back.

_Damn my superiority complex_, she grumbled in her head.

Trying not to stomp her way over to the group, she approached them, crossing her arms with a huff. Cocking her hip and quirking a brow, she narrowed her eyes at Fury, the man she usually didn't enjoy staring at.

"What do you need me to do Boss? Strip? Lay on the ground? Pee in a cup?"

"Unzipping the top half of your suit would be a nice start, thank you," he said calmly, looking her straight in the eye.

Pursing her lips, she awkwardly raised her brows and stared at the two medics. Finally knowing she couldn't avoid it, she unzipped her suit and pulled it off of her shoulders, wiggling the material down to hug her hips. Luckily she had worn a sports bra. Taking a look for herself as one of the medics knelt down to look at her side, she saw a large, shiny, square bruise. Metal flakes could be seen in her skin; they should repair themselves soon. Otherwise the bruise looked like the solar system to her—a huge cloud of purple.

The medic placed two fingers over different parts of the bruise, pushing slightly. "Does this hurt?" he asked.

"Yeah, because it's a bruise," she said, furrowing her brows and trying not to look like she was judging him too much. The medic let out an exasperated sigh, in return Fury giving her an annoyed look.

She shut her mouth and let him continue pushing at her skin.

"Her bones seem in perfect condition, just like she said," he shrugged, standing up straight and looking at Fury.

"Thank you," Fury nodded and the two gentlemen left. Fury walked around the table, followed by Agent Hill, walking over to the multiple screens he would always stand by.

Something was off about the examination, and Scotty certainly was going to say something. Setting her hands on her hips, she walked up to Hill and Fury, trying to look around their shoulders into their eyes.

"You know that my bones can repair themselves," she stated. "Why would you call a medic team?"

"We have to be safe," Hill replied.

Without looking at her, Scotty lifted up one finger and shushed her. She continued to stare straight at Fury.

"Tony built me—_re_built me just fine," she muttered, more confused than angered.

Fury said nothing, playing with the screens. Scotty set her hand on Hill's shoulder and moved her out of the way so she could step closer to her "Boss". "We must always have our doubts," he said simply.

Her face fell at his words; she couldn't believe he was suggesting that Tony's mechanics were faulty. It was rather insulting.

"Yeah, well if you want to have doubts I suggest you take a look at the suit you built for me, cause it is absolute shit," she growled just as Steve walked in, still in his Captain America suit.

"I hope I'm on time I—" Steve began saying before he noticed Scotty. Quickly he stopped and slightly turned away, looking more towards Thor and Natasha.

Coughing, he tried not to look in her direction, "I—my apologies for interrupting at a—uh—inconvenient time."

"You're right on time Mr. Rogers. Would you please excuse me," Fury said, glaring at Scotty and then proceeding down a small flight of stairs down to the computers.

Natasha shook her head. "It's not something you haven't seen before Mr. Rogers," she muttered. Steve smirked awkwardly and Scotty snorted, crossing her arms, "actually it is."

From the opposite side of the table from where Steve entered, Bruce came in through the lab door. He came out, placing his glasses on his face, just in time to stare at the annoyed Natasha, the flustered Steve, a quiet, contemplative God and the half naked Scotty. Shrugging, he stepped down the stairs slowly, gesturing to all of them.

"I hope I didn't miss anything exciting," he said sarcastically, looking at everyone rather worried.

The moment he spoke, Scotty looked in his direction and stared at him in shock. Her eyes widened and her mouth almost completely dropped open. Like snakes, she slithered her arms up and around her sports bra, covering what was already decently covered, turning a slight pink, shifting uncomfortably. So many times had other people seen her in worse condition, but she couldn't help but lose her cool all of a sudden.

Bruce stared at her oddly for a moment, gesturing to her bruise, "how did you get that? It looks horrible."

Thor stepped up beside him. "That would have been me. We engaged in combat," he explained, gesturing to Scotty. Bruce slightly jumped away, looking up at him.

"Oh…that's nice."

Quickly, Bruce scurried away from Thor and Scotty stepped away from Agent Hill. They met up beside one another, almost bumping heads. Fortunately they stopped themselves in time. Nervously, Scotty laughed at the almost mishap and they both stared down at their feet, Bruce's cheeks starting to heat up.

"I thought your skin was invulnerable," he stated quietly as Natasha and Coulson took their seats around the table.

Laughing slightly she shook her head, looking down at the floor again, "No. It'll repair itself sooner or later though."

Staring at her incredulously, his mouth half open in a smile, he narrowed his eyes. "I just have to meet your maker…my goodness. New things every time I talk to you."

Whether it was flattery or not, she still giggled like a little school girl. She couldn't hold it back either and it inadvertently slipped out; but Bruce must've found it endearing since he started to chuckle as well. Steve walked up to the table and sat down, still trying not to look at Scotty whatsoever, just staring mainly at Natasha.

"So, did he say anything about the Tesseract?"

She shook her head. "It wasn't on his person, and from what we could tell, he honestly doesn't know where it is at the moment. It must've been a decoy that lured us to Germany."

"Or maybe he has some of the gamma radiation in his scepter. Did we collect it from him?" Steve asked.

Natasha nodded and crossed her legs, "It's in the lab, ready for Dr. Banners analysis."

Scotty twisted her mouth, confused by Loki in general. She made no attempt to stick her arms back into her sleeves. It wasn't really her main priority.

"What about backup. We can't just believe he could only use self made clones—especially when he has captives," she said doubtfully, shaking her head, thinking of Agent Barton and Professor Selvig.

Little screens appeared on the table before everyone, catching their eyes. They all stopped speaking and looked down at the table, watching intently as a security camera caught Loki and Fury talking. Scotty quirked a brow.

_He was just…what the hell…_ she sighed in her thoughts.

Bruce shifted uncomfortably beside her and leaned on the chair, his eyes darting around the screen. They caught the conversation mid through, so Scotty was only trying to focus on key points of the conversation, blocking out any other chatter.

"It is an impressive cage," Loki cooed. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot _stronger_ than you," Fury said coldly.

They couldn't catch a good glimpse of his face, but it was obvious he was smirking. "Oh I've heard," he muttered, turning towards a camera. "A mindless beast. Makes play he's still a man."

Unconsciously, Scotty's hand reached out and touched Bruce's elbow, staring down at the screen intensely. Bruce made no sudden movements. It was like she was trying to hold him back instead of comfort him, which she knew she might feel regretful about later.

"How desperate are you?" Loki questioned. "To call on such lost creatures to defend you."

Glaring at the screen, Scotty clenched her jaw and began to tune out. He was worth so much of her time for so many reasons and yet she didn't want to hear him speak. She could gather enough from his muffled words. His words about how they were so close to having the Tesseracts power; its shining light to guide the people. Then it was stomped out by his true power. She didn't want to hear it but it was her job. Fury had walked away after that and the monitors disappeared.

"He really grows on you doesn't he?" Bruce joked, looking mainly to Scotty for a reaction. She could only smirk.

Steve turned his chair towards Thor who was standing now at the head of the table, staring at all of them, pondering just as they were.

"Loki is gonna drag this out. Thor, what's his play?" he asked, guessing Thor would know.

"He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people," Thor explained immediately, rubbing his chin. "They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

Scotty quirked a brow and looked at Bruce. "So he doesn't really need the Tesseract for himself…but as payment. Hm. What would they use it for?"

"The Tesseract can open or build portals," Bruce explained out loud, probably thinking he was just relaying it in his head. "It's unlimited sustainable power is of, inevitably, great use."

Steve only sort of stared at the table confused. "An army. From outer space."

Bruce lightly snapped his fingers and looked at Steve and Scotty. "So he's building another portal! That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

Suddenly, Thor turned to Bruce, glaring. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist," Bruce muttered.

"He's a friend," Thor muttered quietly, looking slightly shocked by the news.

Leaning forward, Natasha looked straight at Thor. "Loki has him under some sort of spell. Along with one of ours."

"I want to know why Loki let us take him here. He can't lead an army from here," Steve shrugged, standing up out of his chair, beginning to pace.

Natasha nodded and Scotty crossed her arms, just as Bruce did. Bruce began to shake his head, pulling off his glasses. "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guys brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him," he described with a nonchalant shrug.

"Have a care how you speak," Thor threatened lowly. "Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

"Your brother killed eighty people in two days," Scotty sighed, rolling her eyes.

"…He's adopted."

Scotty shook her head benignly and held out her hands, like she was stopping time—stopping that whole subplot of the conversation. She shut her eyes and sighed, "Okay, what exactly did Loki steal, again?"

She had phrased it in a way to suggest that she had even known what he had stolen. As per usual, she had ignorantly been lost in her own thoughts to think or ask about what he had taken from Germany.

"Agent Barton stole Iridium…Loki was used as a distraction," Natasha muttered dejectedly, looking down at the table.

"Which is why I think we should focus on the mechanics instead of Loki. Iridium," Bruce piped up. "What does he need the Iridium for?"

The door across the room opened with a loud "shiff" and out walked Tony and Phil, both in their nice suits.

"It's a stabilizing agent!" Tony said, looking to Bruce. As he stepped down the small stairs with Coulson, he muttered something to him before they broke apart and walked their separate ways around the large table, everyone watched Tony intently.

The sight of him again made Scotty slightly stiffen and cross her arms, cocking her hip to the side.

"Means the portal won't collapse in on itself like it did at SHIELD," he said matter-of-factly, shrugging slightly.

"No hard feelings, point-break, you've got a mean swing," he added, patting Thor on the harshly on the shoulder as he passed. Thor didn't budge a centimeter.

Valiantly, he stepped up by Fury's computers and spun to face the occupants of the table. "Also, means the portal can open as wide and stay open as long as Loki wants," he smiled knowingly. Enthusiastically twisted to face the computers of the entire ship. Raising his hand high, he started calling out to the workers.

"Ah—raise the mizzen mast, ship the top sails," Tony's voice carried. Without missing a beat, the team jumped as Tony pointed at a man's computer, yelping, "That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice…but we did."

Scotty was about ready to wince, looking at everyone's expressions. Bruce was oddly watching Tony, examining him in a way; Natasha and Steve both had a look of…not exactly contempt, but of utter annoyance at Tony's constant outbursting; Hill looked slightly exasperated, and Coulson watched on in what Scotty thought was amusement.

She looked to her old friend as he covered his left eye with one hand, before looking to Agent Hill.

"How does Fury even see these?" he asked, gesturing to the screens.

"He turns," Agent Hill muttered.

"Sounds exhausting," he sighed. Scotty rolled her eyes and scoffed, which she was sure Tony had ignored.

He started playing with the screen childishly as he spoke on, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he needs is a power source—of high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube."

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Scotty said loudly, furrowing her brows.

Tony looked to her and examined her, visibly trying to hold back a comment about her attire, and her bruise. Instead he raised his brows. "Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers—am I the only one who did the reading?" he questioned, looking falsely surprised at everyone.

Scotty shifted uncomfortably and pursed her lips. _Oops…_ she thought.

"Does Loki need any particular power source?" Steve joined in, leaning back in his seat.

"He'd have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twelve million Kelvin just to break the Coulomb barrier—" Bruce noted aloud to himself, meaning to say it in his head most likely. Tony looked to him in agreement.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect."

Bruce looked up at Tony and nodded, "Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet."

Scotty looked between the two of them as Tony looked up to ceilings as if Bruce was a gift from the heavens.

"Finally, someone who speaks English!" he rejoiced monotonously as he advanced towards Bruce and Scotty.

"Is that just what happened?" Steve questioned, hooking a thumb over his shoulder.

From behind her, Scotty could hear the two men's hands clasp together. They shook fiercely as Tony nodded to Bruce in silent approval.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you—lose control and turn into a enormous green rage monster," Tony rambled. The sound of him even uttering those words allowed him to receive a look from Scotty as she turned to stare at him in shock.

All he did was raise his brows at her, expecting her to say something. Bruce thanked him awkwardly and Tony just looked to him and smirked happily.

"Doctor Banner is here to track the Cube," Fury said, entering the room. Everyone looked to him. "I was hoping you might join him," he continued, directing the notion to Tony.

Scotty smirked. Of course Fury would stick Tony with Bruce. The two science nerds.

"I think if you need a starting point, I say start with Loki's sceptor," she said, staring at table. While she spoke, she thought about the stick. Something about it just emanated Tesseract to her—the blue glowing orb at the end being the obvious reason.

Steve nodded, "I agree. It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that," Fury muttered, looking to Steve in acknowledgement. "But it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Thor looked up the SHIELD director, looking suddenly lost.

"Monkeys? I don't understand—"

"I do!" Steve said, raising his voice. Everyone looked at him. "I—I understood that reference."

Scotty pressed her lips together, trying to keep herself from laughing. Tony rolled his eyes and gestured to Bruce.

"Shall we play, Doctor?"

"This way, sir," Bruce smirked, pointing to the lab door.

They began on their way, Scotty eyeing them all the while. God only knows what they'll get done, and how quickly. Maybe it was good Tony was working with Bruce. Deep down inside, though, she would wonder what Tony could bring up around him.

"And Doctor Banner," Fury called out. The two men stopped just at the door and turned to look at the hardened director. "Take Agent Accion with you. She's on medical absence for the moment, and I believe she would be very eager to assist you two."

Scotty's eyes fell on her Boss. His words ran a marathon through her head. Medical absence? What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"Director I'm perfectly capable of doing something much more productive—"

"Until that bruise disappears, as you so claim it will, you are helping Doctor Banner and Mr. Stark," he said, his voice filled with steal. His opinion wasn't going to change.

Giving him the worst look she could, the look she had always saved for her worst enemies if she ever came upon them, she clenched her fists. "Yes sir," she growled deeply.

She spun on her heals harshly, and stomped her way to the lab, looking neither Bruce or Tony in the eye. Before she had left for SHIELF, she had been warned about something like this happening by none other than Tony. Warned that she wouldn't be treated fairly—he indirectly said so and she didn't believe it. This was just another mark on the list of things SHIELD was "doing" to her that she has been ignoring. And she'll continue to ignore it to keep her job and to keep her pride.

She could feel the two men just staring at her, Tony especially.

Scotty didn't dare try and peek. She didn't want to see what kind of thoughts were going through Tony's head, flashing across his eyes.

Would he be heartbroken? Would he be angry? Would he be spiteful? She'll never know because she doesn't want to think about him judging her. That's why she ignored what SHIELD kept doing to her and tried not to keep blaming Tony for everything. It would get the better of her and...

She didn't want Tony to be right.

**Oh hey guys  
I'm posting this faster than I thought!**

**This chapter may be a bit weird. I'm trying to fill in Scotty's thoughts about whats going on.**

**Trying to get her through the "be mad at Tony" thing so they can work together fine later in the story.**

**And the reason I keep having her think so much about her relationship with Tony and SHIELD at some pretty random times is because…-have you ever just randomly thought of something, or realized something at the oddest of times?**

**That's what Scotty keeps doing.**

**I hope that's a good enough excuse.**

**The reason this flashback is kind of long is because I couldn't make it short and effective. I needed to show how truly stubborn Tony is to make the next few chapters worth it and not as confusing as I think they'd be.**

**But anyways…yeah…**

**Sorry for the humongous wait!**


	7. Maybe They Won't Notice

_"Agent Accion. I am your official welcome into SHIELD. Welcome," Coulson said stoically, smirking. He stood in the middle of a conference room that Scotty had been advised to enter by a nameless agent, awaiting her initiation into SHIELD._

_His well-sized hand stuck out to take hers. For a moment she had to double take, because she thought it would've been a more grandiose event. And all that happened was Coulson told her, "hey welcome to the party" and she gets a handshake? That could happen any other day. She did dress rather casually that day anyway, still in her workout clothes._

_Like it was a practical joke, she looked over her shoulder confused, and then squinted at Coulson suspiciously. A smile was creeping across her face slowly._

"_Are you serious? That's it?" she chuckled. He nodded._

"_That's it," he muttered. Hesitantly, she reached out and took his hand, shaking it firmly._

"_Are you sure there isn't like…some kind of party?"_

"_SHIELD doesn't have parties."_

_Scotty pursed her lips and nodded slowly, humming in acknowledgement._

_Taking a second to examine the man before her, one she had barely gotten to know, a shiver ran up her spine._

_She was a SHIELD operative. And Coulson, the first agent she had ever met was her welcome party. It was nice and personal and exciting. But she was an Agent!_

_Letting out a yelp of success she jumped into the air, pumping her fists. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!" she screamed, jumping in circles._

_Coulson watched her amused, blinking occasionally, not flinching like most would._

"_OH MY GOSH—PHIL. Can you believe it?! I'm an AGENT," she yelled, jumping over to him and shaking him by the arms._

"_Yes I know. I was the one who told you," he said monotonously._

_She squealed and put her hands on either side of her face, "I just can't hold in how excited I am! I have all new components that I can use—OH I wish I could see Tony's stupid face once he finds out that—"_

_She stopped. She hadn't mentioned Tony in a long time._

_Coulson reached out and touched her arm. "Don't get too excited yet," he said rather comfortingly. He was pulling her away from her thoughts, knowing whatever she was thinking about wasn't what she needed to think about. "You're training is just beginning."_

_Looking blankly at him, she bit the inside of her cheek. "You mean…I get to—to use this stuff?" she asked, gesturing to her entire body animatedly._

_He nodded._

"_Oh no way—no way!" she gasped; suddenly losing the thought of Tony again in a heart beat._

"_Yes," Coulson smiled._

"_NO WAY, NO WAY."_

"…_Yes."_

"_Well then let's get started!" she said, looking at him like he was crazy for just standing there._

_And with that, Coulson led her to her training. Supervising every move she made. Teaching her everything he knows._

* * *

"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract," Bruce muttered, double-checking the folder Scotty had placed in front of him.

The three had been in the lab for over an hour and were getting readings on the scepter, now that they had set up a scanner. Small chit-chat had been achieved between the three of them, mainly between Bruce and Tony or Scotty and Bruce. Occasionally, Tony would joke and Scotty would laugh, and they would give each other a look of—not exactly flirtatious, but what Scotty knew was a look of 'things don't have to be awkward'.

He had definitely gotten her to loosen up. Over the hour he had told more and more jokes that Scotty should've found inappropriate, seeing as how she was a respectable businesswoman who needed to be mature, but the atmosphere in the room didn't call for that. She had even forgotten that she still stood around with her sports bra and her jumpsuit hanging around her hips. She laughed at some pretty crude jokes that she hadn't heard in a long time—especially after Tony straight up told her to relax.

"I am relaxed," she retorted with a smile and scoff. He just shook his head, "Not enough."

"But it's gonna take weeks to process," Bruce continued, sighing tiredly, looking between Scotty and Tony.

Scotty furrowed her brows, "Weeks?"

Tony was at work on another screen, opening and closing boxes and swishing around statistics.

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Homer cluster we can clock this at around six hundred teraflops," he said matter-of-factly.

"All I packed for this trip was a toothbrush," Bruce joked, making Tony laugh.

Scotty turned to Tony now, her brows still furrowed. "Teraflops? I don't—oh my God," she whined, slumping to the table.

"It's a measure of speed for a computer Scotts, don't stress out," Tony mumbled. Bruce smirked and eyed Scotty as she stood up straight, fixing her mangled braid.

Tony looked to Bruce, seeing him watching Scotty fixedly. He smirked and walked over to the table, "You know, you should come by Stark Tower some time. Top ten floors—all R and D. You'd love it. It's candy land."

Bruce looked up at Tony and then quickly gazed at his computer screen, beginning to play with it.

"Thanks but…last time I was in New York I kind of—broke—Harlem," he smirked. There was a hint of a chuckle under his words. But Scotty could tell it was something awkward and nerve-wracking to say.

"Well I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises," Tony said softly, walking around both Scotty and Bruce, playing with something in his hand. The moment he got around Bruce, Scotty saw him stick whatever he was holding into his side.

Bruce let out a yelp and hopped away from Tony, turning to the fellow scientist. Scotty's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Tony!" she snickered. But Tony was too busy watching Bruce intently. No one noticed Steve enter the room and intervene.

"Hey!" he barked.

"Nothing?" Tony muttered, shrugging in confusion, like he expected something to happen.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked, glaring at Tony like he was crazy.

"Jury's out," Tony said monotonously, looking at Steve blankly. Scotty snorted as Tony turned back to Bruce looking rather impressed. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asked, narrowing his eyes at the billionaire.

Tony turned to him, looking slightly annoyed. "Funny things are," he said simply.

"Threatening the lives of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve said wryly. Scotty furrowed her brows as Steve turned to Bruce. "No offense, Doc."

"Steve everything is fine," she interjected.

Bruce nodded his head. "Yeah—no—uh—it's alright," he stammered, agreeing with Scotty before acknowledging Steve. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle—pointy things."

Tony pointed at Bruce. "You're tip-toeing big man. You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem Mr. Stark," Steve said, glancing at Tony.

"You think I'm not?" Tony asked, pretending to sound insulted. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the question if I don't have all the variables."

The line turned on a light in Scotty's head, as well as Steve's. It was a sudden thing, that came out of nowhere from Tony, but it got their attention. Listening to how Tony said it, and even just nit picking the questions, Scotty could tell that he was suggesting something. Something _not_ good. And she was starting to wonder if she should stand by and let it happen.

"What are you suggesting?" she asked, confused.

"You think Fury's up to something?" Steve added, eyeing them all. Scotty tried not to widen her eyes and appear interested. Tony was suggesting something about SHIELD. And now that Scotty worked for them, she had to do some legitimate spy work.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's a spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony said, shaking his head in disbelief. Scotty didn't move at all, even as Tony gestured to her and Bruce. "It's bugging them top, isn't it?"

Bruce looked up at Tony and then glanced at Scotty, who did nothing but stare ahead. "Ah—I just want to finish my work here and—"

"Doctor?" Steve asked worriedly.

Hesitantly, Bruce looked at the star spangled man with a plan and pressed his lips together. " 'A warm light for all mankind,' Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube."

"I heard it," Steve nodded. Scotty listened intently to Bruce speak.

"Well…I think that was meant for you," Bruce shrugged, gesturing to Tony. Tony, who had opened a bag of blueberries to munch on, held out the bag of berries for Bruce to pick at. He stuck his hand in and pulled one out as he continued, "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki all about he tower, it's all over the news."

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly—" Steve began, twisting his mouth in disgust. Scotty noticed Tony giving the man a look and Steve cut himself short. "—building in New York?"

Bruce nodded. "It's powered by an arc-reactor, self-sustaining clean energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?"

"It's just the prototype," Tony shrugged. He looked at Steve. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now, that's what he's getting at."

"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce asked rhetorically, shooting Scotty a glance. "Wh—what are they even doing in the energy business in the first place?"

He made a valid point, was all Scotty thought. She was glad she was keeping her mouth shut. She wanted to hear all of this.

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony said nonchalantly, pulling a little monitor out of his pocket.

As effortlessly as she could, Scotty let her eyes widened slightly in shock. Tony was spying on the spys? Was he really that worried and suspicious? Scotty was too surprised to even drop her mouth open and gasp.

"I'm sorry—did you say—" Steve began, shifting his weight and looking to Tony for clarification.

"JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours I'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" Tony offered Steve, walking around the table as he explained.

Steve sneered. "Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around."

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome," Tony said matter-of-factly.

"I think Loki's just trying to wind us up," Scotty said meekly, not meaning to blurt out anything. But that had been running through her head for a while. The God seemed all smoke and mirrors. It must've been his intention to bring up a conversation like this—he seemed devious enough.

Bruce and Steve looked at her, but Tony kept his eyes on the Captain. Nodding, Steve continued.

"I agree. He's a man who means to start a war and if we don't stay focused he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following's not really my style," Tony shrugged.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve threatened.

"Out of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangley outfit and B) not of use?" Tony said just as threateningly.

Scotty pressed her lips together, quietly saying, "We're all of use, Tony."

Fortunately, no one heard her.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells fishy to you?" Bruce said from the other side of the table.

Steve peered at him and then back at Tony. "Just find the Cube," he said, nodding in Bruce's direction then in Scotty's.

He exited and Scotty could feel a heavy breath escape her lips. She hadn't realize she had been holding it. They were suspicious of SHIELD and she understood why—but she didn't understand one thing.

Why didn't _she_ know anything about that stuff?

"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they should've kept him on ice," Tony scoffed, joining Bruce and Scotty around the table.

Scotty was finally feeling like she could get her voice back, the subject slipping away.

"We need him Tony, SHIELD brought him in for a reason," Scotty shrugged.

"You two are not wrong about Loki, he does have the jump on us," Bruce nodded to Scotty.

Tony rolled his eyes. "What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and we're gonna be there when it does," he scoffed, nudging Scotty.

"I'll read all about it," Bruce muttered.

"Or you'll be suiting up with the rest of us," Scotty said, squinting at him. Bruce had a handle on the Hulk, and he knew it. The Hulk could be of use. She knew Tony agreed with her.

"Now, you see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve, it's a nightmare," Bruce said, his lip twitching. He was off to another screen across the room.

Tony stepped up on the other side of the screen after closely following Bruce. Behind them followed Scotty, who took her spot next to Tony.

"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl it's way into my heart. This—" he taps the arc reactor brightly shining through his shirt. "—stops it. This little circle of light. It's a part of me now, not just armor."

Looking up at Scotty, seeing the pain in her eyes, he reached out and pointed at her chest. He touched it in the right spot where her own arc reactor lit up.

"That little circle of light keeps her heart beating…and the rest of her working perfectly. It's a part of her now too. It's a terrible privilege for both of us."

Bruce watched her chest glow. That was a dead giveaway at who fixed her up. Scotty's cheeks turned pink and she looked up at Bruce knowingly, starting to smile nervously. He smirked and looked at her just as knowingly through his statistics on the screen.

"But you two can control it," he said, watching Scotty. Her gradual smile faded, preparing to disagree.

"Because we learned how," Tony said before she could speak.

"It's different," Bruce muttered quietly, looking back to the screen.

Suddenly, Scotty had had enough of him bringing himself down. Bruce was a brilliant scientist who didn't need to be so negative about what was a part of him. She reached up and pushed everything on the screen out of the way so she could look straight at Bruce. She didn't know how she did it, but she did.

"Hey, we read about your accident," she said harshly. "That much Gamma exposure—should've killed you."

"So you're saying the Hulk—the Other Guy—saved my life?" he questioned, raising his brows. "That's nice. That's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?"

Sadly she stared at him. Why couldn't he see how useful both sides of him were?

"I'll guess we'll find out."

"You may not enjoy that."

"You just might," Tony muttered, pulling everything back onto the screen. He pulled Scotty away from the screen and let Bruce continue his work after his thoughtful pause.

The two of them went back to the scepter and stood in silence beside it. Tony was just staring at Scotty, while Scotty looked away.

Finally he asked. "What was that all about?" he asked, not angrily, but confused.

She looked up at him. "Bruce is a brilliant scientist. And even though he doesn't particularly like the "Other Guy", he's just as useful. I believe the Hulk is good now that Bruce has a hold of him," she rambled, pouring her guts out. Maybe it was because she respected Bruce, or because she had given him a special little place in her heart because of how sweet he is, but she couldn't help but try and find the words to express how important the Hulk was.

He stared at her for a moment before raising his brows, "Feel better?"

Pouting at his retort, she looked down at her ribs. "My bruise still hurts," she shrugged.

Tony looked down at it. She lifted her arm to look at the remaining bruise, which was no bigger than a cellphone.

"Your skin cells are harder to regenerate than bone surprisingly. A little technical error I should've noticed during the surgery," he grumbled, pressing his lips together. The way he said it, Scotty noticed, was if it was another day at his Malibu home, talking about it. Not after their argument when everything was angry.

She shrugged, "Not everything can be perfect."

"Don't I know it," he snorted, watching Bruce work intently.

They fell silent. Carefully, Scotty looked up at Tony, examining his profile. All she could read from it was how contemplative he was. He was thinking about Bruce, thinking about SHIELD probably, and then thinking something about Scotty.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you turn on your mechanics again," he said out of nowhere.

She blinked, wondering why he was bringing this up again. "Don't apologize. You made your call. It was a weird one, but you made your call. And now it's done with," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"You got hurt. Again. You were put in a situation where you could've died and I held you back. Again," he grumbled, clenching his teeth together. She narrowed her eyes, chuckling. A twinge went up her arm from her left hand.

"Tony I put _myself_ in a situation where I could die every second when I joined SHIELD. You have no idea how many people want us gone," she laughed, shaking her head, glancing out the window behind them at the bridge. Unnoticed to her, she was rubbing at her left palm.

"I still want to say I'm sorry. Especially because Pepper would appreciate it," he said, turning to face her completely, glancing at her hand. She looked him up and down and then smirked.

"Alright. I forgive you," she muttered. Carefully he smiled. He had won a battle, but certainly not the war.

She pointed at him. "But don't take it as though I'm forgiving you for everything. I still want you to sincerely apologize about…what happened."

Tony glared at her. "Way to drop a bomb. Why do I still need to apologize? I thought it was behind us?"

She threw her head back and laughed. "Oh you think some things are going to be so easy, sometimes."

Without another word, she patted his shoulder and walked around him. She knew it was a lot for him to ask for an apology. That was something he certainly wasn't going to apologize for, which is why she wanted to clarify that that apology wasn't an apology for everything. Nor was the forgiving.

But now was not the time to dwell on that. She had to think about what she was going to do now. She had walked away from Tony and had nowhere to go but to Bruce. Attitude change was necessary. She had brought up a touchy subject and probably wasn't going to get back in on good terms with him so easily.

She reached out and touched his shoulder. "Bruce?"

He jumped and looked at her. "Oh! Hi."

"Hi," she muttered, folding her arms behind her back.

They were silent.

"I didn't mean to—"

"So Tony built—"

"—Oh." They both interrupted one another at the same time, pulling away from their statement when they heard the other talk.

"You first," Bruce muttered.

"I…I just wanted to say that…I didn't mean to upset you or suggest anything that could make you uncomfortable," she shrugged, looking down at the floor. "Our opinions differ. So I'll just leave it at that. What were you going to say?" she asked, trying to catch his attention when he looked back at the screen.

He turned to her, blinking furiously. "Oh—uh—I was going to say, uh—so you're a Stark creation?"

The words made her teeth grit and grind. She didn't want to say anything drastic or rude, she just nodded. "You could say that."

Suddenly he shook his head, "Well…I probably shouldn't. You're still a person. Being rebuilt with Stark components doesn't completely make you who you are. But now I know who made you so perfect."

After he finished his sentence, he seemed to choke on his words, looking like he was about to throw up right then and there. He started looking from her to the screen exasperatedly.

"I—I mean—who gave you so many awesome robotic components," he shrugged, poking at something on the screen, trying to busy himself.

Scotty watched with raised brows as he started playing with a clipboard and kept typing things on the screen.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "Mhm."

"Well…that was very well said. That could just as easily apply to you," she tried to push in there.

He looked up at her, "What do you mean?"

"I mean…you're not defined by the Other Guy," she started hesitantly. "But he's still awesome."

When Bruce didn't reply she knew she had taken it in the wrong direction.

"I'm sorry," she muttered quietly.

"Don't be," he replied. "Just—understand that there are really some parts of me—most importantly him—that you really shouldn't celebrate. And that's how I feel."

"And I respect that," she said, raising a hand in defense.

He nodded. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," she smiled. "Now how's the search coming?"

"Hasn't budged much but," he said, looking from the notepad to the screen. "We're still getting somewhere.

"Good," she smiled, hoping he wouldn't bring up SHIELD.

Setting down the clipboard, he turned to her.

"So now that I know who fixed you up…will you tell me what happened?"

Scotty, only slightly surprised by his question, clenched her teeth and hissed through her teeth. "I don't know…I don't think you're ready for it," she joked, shaking her head.

He cocked his head to the side. "Oh really?"

"No, not really," she laughed. He chuckled warmly.

"Um…long story short, Tony and I tried to escape a terrorist camp and we got blown up and—I had the worst of it!" she shrugged, speaking quickly.

There was a moment of silence from him, as he just stared at her blankly.

"Wait…what?"

She slumped her shoulders and winced. "I don't—like bringing it up when Tony's around," she said, glancing at her friend, who was frustratedly checking his hand held monitor. "It makes him…uncomfortable and sad. He feels really guilty about it. It didn't help that I gave him a hard time about it for a while. And now it's just…unsteady soil to tread on if you know what I mean."

Bruce looked to Tony, "how long have you known him?"

"Four years…that's when it happened," she noted, also watching Tony, who didn't notice their staring. He looked just like he was did when he was making his first Iron Man suit. Pensive.

"And when did you join SHIELD?" he asked.

"Two years ago," she said, hoping he wouldn't elaborate on the SHIELD part.

He nodded. "What happened? I heard you two talking over there about him apologizing."

She sucked in another breath and looked at him. Casually, she tried to play it off. "Oh…I uh…didn't feel useful with Tony. And SHIELD gave me a great opportunity to really use my machinery for good use."

"You didn't feel useful?"

"Well—Tony tried to protect me a lot. I didn't and still don't know how to turn on what mechanics he gave me," she said, rubbing at her left palm, which had been aching for the past few minutes. The whole subject about Tony—she had never felt this comfortable talking about, as much as she tried to play off that it wasn't the right time to talk about it. Bruce was easy for her to talk to about everything.

"There must be a reason," he shrugged.

"Maybe," she grumbled, looking down at her hands. Bruce furrowed his brows.

"And Tony?"

"Tony? Oh the SHIELD thing…he thought it was stupid and that I shouldn't go. I'd be 'ruining a lot of opportunities' if I joined SHIELD. I think he was mad because at first he failed their test—doesn't play well with others," she explained, whispering the last part like it was a touchy subject. He chuckled, glancing at Tony.

Another twinge of pain in Scotty's left hand caught her off guard, and she rubbed it profusely.

"Does your hand still hurt?" Bruce asked, gesturing to it.

She shrugged, "Only a little. It's probably nothing. Carpel tunnel maybe."

"Oh. Anyway, if ever you're ready to really talk about what happened with Tony…I'm here," he offered. She nodded.

"Instead of teasing you with little tidbits?" she asked, quirking a brow. He just nodded with a smirk.

"I'll be sure to take you up on that," she laughed.

In Bruce's brilliant mind, he stupidly didn't know why he had said that. He wasn't one for being a therapist, even to a friend. He had enough of his own problems to worry about. But he liked talking to Scotty.

She was bright enough to hold an intelligent conversation, and was very fun to be around. Not to mention beautiful, though he wouldn't admit it aloud. And despite what she said, she got along fine with Tony and the others. And she seemed like an Agent of SHIELD capable of doing her job. Not a suspicious bone in her half metal body.

Yet…Bruce couldn't help but wonder; was there?

**Here comes Coulson and Bruce!**

**Don't worry, we're pretty much done with the Tony angst, I promise.**

**We're riding into Coulson and Bruce territory.**

**Especially those two now that the big fight scene on the helicarrier is arriving.**

**And now that I have a script, I was able to dish this one out in no time!**

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**Read & _REVIEW_**


	8. Nightmare Come True

_Sweat was pouring down her forehead, coating and clogging every pour of her body. The metal casings that were practically now holding her together were probably rusting. Her hair stuck to her neck, cheeks and head, stray hairs tickling her ears and nose. Every part of her body ached and begged for her to stop. She was doing the same to Coulson._

"_Phil can we please take a lunch break or something?" she panted heavily, placing her hands on her hips, despite how sore her upper arms were. The large, heavy metal canons on her arms were weighing her down, as well as the matching boots on her legs. Coulson stood off to the side, his arms folded across his chest, staring at her like she was just a streetwalker._

_He shook his head slowly, blinking, "One last time. Then we move on. Do the move one more time."_

_She winced, her face contorting into pain._

"_Phil, please?"_

"_One last time."_

"_I've had the move down for over an hour now," she said, gesturing to the beat up mannequins stationed around the gym. "I need to rest."_

_When she looked him in the eye, she saw that he wasn't about to budge. He wasn't going to let her go so easily._

"_One. Last. Time," he said quietly._

_Holding her breath, she pressed her lips together, staring at him like she deciding whether to practice on him, or to just do what he said. When he just quirked a brow, she sighed and shook her head._

"_The things I do for you," she grumbled, turning around to glare at the mannequins. Slowly, she trudged back onto the mat and positioned herself in the middle of the plastic group of voiceless guinea pigs._

_Usually, she should've prepared herself in a ready to fight stance, but Coulson had been pushing her so much the past few weeks she was sure she was just able to boost herself with her own leg muscles without even trying. The workouts she'd been doing were very effective._

_About ready to be done, Scotty glared at every single mannequin, everything in her mind fuzzy. Her mind was a buzz, her ears ringing—and she knew it wasn't because the heater in the gym was humming as loud as a hovering helicopter. A single bead of sweat could be felt slipping down the side of her face. Coulson shifted his weight, she noticed out of the corner of her eye._

"_One. Last. Time," she muttered. She heard her voice, sounding like it was stuck inside of her head; hollow and slurred._

_Coulson quirked a brow and checked his watch, seeing how she was definitely taking her time. It was mostly because every head on the five mannequins were turning into heads of the people she found annoying at one time or another._

_Standing directly across from her was Tony, a smug smirk on his face; to her left was her college psychology professor Mr. Torrence; to her right was Coulson and Fury; and behind her, when she looked over her shoulder, was none other than Obidiah Stane. It was as if her brain was helping her gain the strength to do it one last time. She was going to work hard for SHIELD if it meant she had to do this move one last time._

Breathe in through your nose, and out through your mouth_, she thought._

_Puffing out her chest, she barely bent her knees to push herself forward towards Tony. In the air, she did a front flip until her feet planted themselves on his face. Using the steam from her boots, she twisted around on his face, and propelled herself off so she was heading straight for Obidiah—a clunk behind her signaling Tony had fallen over. She held out her arms and flung them horizontally across, pressing a button with her pinky. Lasers shot out of her wrists and chopped Obidiahs face in three. Lightly she landed behind him, only there for a moment before she shot up into the air, up towards the ceiling where she took aim at both Fury and her teacher, both of whom received a chest full of dart bullets, which exploded inside of them. Harshly she landed in the middle of the gym, turning to look at the fifth mannequin—Coulson._

_With her last bit of energy, she just ran at him, pulling back her arm, ready to shoot a beam of blue right into his chest. Her head was pounding, and a white light was beginning to fill in her vision. Right as she got to the mannequin, she collapsed to her knees in front it, letting out a shaky breath._

_It felt like a blind eternity there on the floor, her head pressed against the mannequin's knees. Lightly, a hand touched the back of her head._

"_That wasn't exactly what you had learned, but improvisation is always good. You're done for the day," Coulson's voice cooed above her._

_The light in her eyes started to fade, lining the ridges of her vision. She looked back at the mannequins—one with a melted face, lying on the floor, another with a missing head, and two with imploded chests—all faceless. There were only four mannequins._

"_There are four," she muttered._

_Coulson's hand pressed harder against her head, like he has tensed up._

"_Let's be done," he said tightly, like he knew just how tired she had become. She had "hallucinated" a fifth. And it was only him._

_Helping her up, they stumbled to the door of the gym._

"_Tomorrow, you will be starting your spy training. Barton and I will assist you. It's time to teach you what's really important," Coulson grunted, shutting the lights off behind them._

_She only nodded and shut her eyes, allowing him to guide her. As usual._

* * *

"You really didn't hear about what happened with the army?" Bruce questioned, cocking his head and quirking his brow. Scotty sat on the table beside him, kicking her legs like a child on a swing.

She shrugged. "I'm never in the loop on anything!" she chuckled. His only response was shaking his head, snorting.

"I'm not! Always the last to find out a family pet died, the last to find out who's president, the last to find out who's running for president, the last to find out what part of New York got blown up, the last to find out _everything_! It's like the world purposefully stuffs my ears with cotton," she gasped, listing off a few things on her fingers. He continued shaking his head, his smirk growing into a smile.

"How is it possible to be the _last_ to find out who the president is?" he laughed.

Laughing she continued shrugging, her shoulders coming up to her ears. "I don't know—how should I know?" she laughed.

"Well I'm in the same boat with you. Being in Calcutta meant that I was as far away from all of that as possible," he muttered, squinting at the screen and then at his clipboard.

"Yeah but you did that on purpose," she muttered, pursing her lips. He smirked and peeked at her as she gazed at the screen. She looked interested but bored.

He could tell she was definitely thinking about something. They had spent enough time together the past few hours for him to catch on with her little mannerisms.

"What are you thinking about," he stated, mumbling. His pen scrawled across his paper when he noticed a small spike on the screen.

She twisted her mouth and looked at him wearily. Squinting, she examined him.

"When was the last time you talked to Betty?" she asked, tapping her fingers on the table. In the file she had read, she remembered how they had been together and had a close relationship. Love would be the right word.

Eventually his smirk faded and he just kept scrawling on the paper. Now he was thinking.

"It's been a while," he muttered. "I haven't seen her since before Harlem."

Nodding, she stared down at her lap.

"Why?" he asked. He wasn't exactly suspicious, but very curious.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I feel like…being in Calcutta would be lonely."

"I made some friends there. It wasn't as though I was a hermit just because I left," he smirked, pushing something away on the screen and pulling up something else.

Rolling her eyes she nodded, "I know, I'm not saying you were a hermit. I'm just…didn't you, you know…"

Her voice trailed off and she made small gestures to try and make him finish the sentence. Since he wasn't looking in her direction, he just kind of froze and waited for her to finish.

"Didn't I…" he also trailed, signaling for her to finish her own sentence.

"…Love her?" she whispered.

He blinked a few times, staring past his clipboard and at the ground. She couldn't tell if he didn't know what to say or if he had just decided not to answer. It was a pretty random question, bringing up a woman he must've loved very dearly. Harlem was a long time ago, and God only knows how much he missed her. She would have to apologize again.

"You protect the people that you love. And I did love her. So I went far away and she was safe," he said quietly.

She nodded understandingly. "Short and simple. It was a nice answer," was all she could say in reply. He clenched his teeth and nodded. Glancing at him, she cocked her head to the side, "Did you ever think about going back and finding her again after everything died down?"

He smirked, "Not really."

"Why not?"

"She's probably moved on. People do that. And she's resilient—she no doubt found someone," he somewhat laughed.

"You sound indifferent about that," she pointed out, not buying what he was saying. At least not completely.

He shrugged. "There was a time when I would've loved to have gone back and get her. Live with her, stay with her until the end…but I know her too well. She'll always love me deep down, but she knows I would've wanted her to move on," he noted, trying to say nonchalantly, but with as much meaning as possible.

To her, he still sounded pretty indifferent, like he didn't want to believe it. He had settled for that idea and that answer and not much could change that, unless, maybe, he saw her again. But that would never happen. It was a very romantic idea, otherwise.

"She was kind of like you," he smiled, looking up at her.

"Me?" she laughed, pointing to her chest. "What, half-robot and gullible?"

"No," he shook his head, writing on the clipboard again.

"Uhhhh…young and encourageable?"

"Nope," he continued shaking his head.

"Brunette?" she finally asked, desperate for the answer.

"Not exactly."

"Then what?" she laughed, slapping her hands on the table.

Bruce shifted his weight and looked up at her with thoughtful eyes, as per usual. "Intelligent, dedicated, personal…" he listed off at first. She narrowed her eyes, listening carefully as he continued. "She cares deeply about the people around her and would risk anything to help…"

His brown eyes seemed to sparkle as he hesitantly muttered, "And beautiful."

Like before, when he had been speaking to her, his eyes seemed to haze over and his brain was smacking itself. Why had he said that out loud again? Was he just stating fact or was his brain thinking something more? He certainly didn't feel like anything was different about his new found relationship with Scotty. He barely knew her. He knew the little things about her, but not enough to be infatuated with her. But everything just came out so fast, it was so…so out of character for him to just blurt out things about Betty, who he felt he had just gotten over completely. It was still touchy.

What he knew about Scotty though, helped him realize one thing. And that was that he could trust her, for the most part. It did put her on the list of people he didn't want to hurt. So once he was done at SHIELD, he would leave immediately. To keep Tony, Scotty and the other members safe from him, if anything were to happen.

"I bet she was beautiful," she said obliviously, forgetting he was comparing the two of them. "But she ain't half robot," she mocked, jumping off of the table.

"No, no she is not," he smiled, setting the clipboard on the table.

Tony trudged up to the two of them. "Who isn't half robot?" he asked, looking dazed.

"No one," Scotty sang, skipping past him. She reached out for Bruce's arm and stopped, looking him straight in the eye. "Thanks for talking with me. Thanks for…trusting me with that," she said, shrugging. He nodded curtly, half smiling—still pondering what truly made him vomit that information all over the lab.

"How's the search a'comin'?" Scotty asked, looking at the table Tony had been working at.

Lifting his hand, he indicated with his index finger and thumb how close, which was about an inch. "So close, Scotts, so close."

She smiled and stared over at the scepter, which hadn't done anything weird. Behind her, Tony turned to Bruce and lightly smacked his arm, pointing at him, muttering, "We're also close to getting into SHEILDS files."

Scotty continued to stare at the scepter listening to them speak. She could feel Bruce staring at her as Tony went on rambling about what he had gotten through so far with his program.

Far, far behind them, the door to the hallway slid open and Coulson stepped in.

"Agent Accion," he called calmly. She turned, as did Bruce and Tony, and stared at him. Now was the time to put there work faces back on.

"May I speak to you for a moment?" he asked, not taking his eyes off of her.

Cautiously, she peeked at Tony and Bruce before beginning to pull her hands off of the table. "Yes…of course."

With purpose, she walked tall and strong towards the door, ignoring the looks she got from the science brothers. Coulson led her into the hallway and the door closed behind them quietly and seamlessly.

Whatever Coulson had to talk to her about must've been important if he was visiting her on "medical rest" or whatever Fury had called it. When they exited the lab, it was as if she had stepped through a veil. The comfortable air that had formed around Tony, Bruce and herself dissolved into this heavy feeling of despair and true tension.

Midway through the hall, Coulson stopped and turned to her, almost bumping into her. She halted and gasped, coming face to face with him.

"How is the search for the Cube coming?" he asked.

"Um…well, Tony said they were close to finding it," she muttered, pointing over her shoulder to the lab. She decided not to mention that they were also close to gaining access to their computers and secrets. Secrets she didn't even know.

As if he knew she was hiding something, he just sort of stared at her. There was silence around them, except for the hum drum out on the bridge. With a curt nod, he turned away.

"Alright," he said.

Just like that, he was done? She opened and closed her mouth, like a fish, and then turned abruptly to jog after him.

"Coulson, I have a question," she said, louder than she meant to. Tranquilly, like nothing was bothering him, he looked over his shoulder at her. He didn't stop walking.

"Yes?"

"Is there…" she began, trying to find the right words for it. She didn't want to suggest that she was having doubts about anything, or that she was feeling wary—he had told her during her training that you must always stay confident in what you say, or else you'll be caught lying. "…anything I should know?"

"What exactly do you mean?" he asked, furrowing his brows.

"I feel as though I might've missed a memo. I didn't make it to that one meeting Fury had a few months back, and I forgot to check in. Is there anything I forgot? I just…I just feel like I'm being left behind," she shrugged, saying it as confidently as possible. She didn't use her shy, innocent little girl tactic Coulson had warned her about. She was professional and stoic. Obviously she was lying about that meeting, but Coulson believed it.

Hopefully.

"I don't think so. You're just paranoid," he assured her. "Nothing to worry about."

Still, she skeptically looked at him. He stopped walking and set his hand on her shoulder.

"Trust me," he continued to assure. "Fury wouldn't keep something from you now that you work for us."

At first she didn't buy it, but knowing it was all she was going to get, she nodded. "Yes sir."

A beeping erupted from his pocket, and he pulled out his phone immediately. He made no expression and looked to her.

"Romanoff is interrogating the God…I suggest you suit up if Banner and Stark are as close to finding the cube as they say," he said monotonously, walking away.

"Yes sir," she said, her eyes wide and confused.

As she was told, she ran off in the opposite direction to get her suit on, slipping her arms back into her sleeves and zipping her zipper.

Despite wanting to trust Bruce and Tony, she had to believe Coulson as well. She worked for SHIELD now, and if Coulson said nothing was wrong—nothing was wrong. Coulson would never lie to her, ever. Her best choice was to believe in SHIELD and do as she was told.

What was she going to do if Bruce and Tony asked her about the secrets of SHIELD? If she knew? Would they believe her if she said that she didn't know, or that she truly believed that nothing was wrong?

In a moments notice, she was in the suit room and was in her cupboard. When she stepped out, her suit was nice and shiny, her ribs didn't hurt any longer and she was sure the bruise was gone. The only thing off was that there was a dent in her suit's side, and there was a lump in her stomach, weighing her down. A twinge went through her left palm, again, which it hadn't done in a little over an hour. She rubbed at it once, and then sped up her pace so she could get back to the lab.

Out of Bruce and Tony, she mainly didn't want Bruce to think she was untrustworthy. Especially after he had spoken to her about things like Betty Ross. But she reassured herself that nothing was going to happen, and when she would walk into the lab, they would be working quietly and will tell her it was time to go and get the Tesseract.

When she walked through the already open door to the lab though, there was Bruce and Tony, speaking with Fury. He must've just walked into the lab as well.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" Fury asked forcefully. Bruce and Tony stood by the scepter, Tony closest to the screen.

"Uh—kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony said, sarcasm slithering through his light tone.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury said calmly, his voice quieter than before. It was as if he was keeping himself from going off.

"We are," Bruce interrupted. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

Tony was face down in his hand held monitor. "Yeah and you'll have your Cube, no muss, no fuss—what is Phase Two?" he asked, pulling up whatever was on his little monitor up to the large screen before him.

From behind Scotty entered Rogers. Everyone looked past Scotty, not noticing she was there, to Steve.

"Phase Two is SHIELD using the Cube to make weapons," Steve said harshly, glaring at Fury. He looked to Tony, "Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. That does not mean—" Fury began, but was cut off by Tony as he spun the screen around.

"I'm sorry Nick," he said mockingly. "You were saying?"

On the screen were large blueprints for a nuclear missile. Just the image of it was sickening. Scotty felt like she was going to collapse right there and throw up on the floor, but she held herself up, staring at the image in surprise. They had been keeping something from her. Something _important_.

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said quietly, his words full of disappointment and, what sounded to Scotty, like pure misery. "The world hasn't changed."

Scotty's hands were shaking, but she clenched her hands into fists. The action made her left palm hurt some more, and right about now she wasn't in the mood for it. She glared down at her hand and clenched her teeth.

Suddenly she felt like something was burning into the top of her head, and when she looked up, she was met with Bruce's chocolate brown eyes glaring at her. He was looking at her like a bad guy.

What a nightmare come true.

**Hope this update was okay!**

**Just putting a little more Bruce and Scotty time in there.**

**And guys…really?**

**I know I've been away, but I give you two chapters, and I only get two reviews?**

**Read & _REVIEW_**

_**PLEASE**_


	9. Help

_"Morning Agent Accion, it's a pleasure finally meeting you," Agent Barton, also known as 'Hawkeye', said courteously, shaking her hand warmly. For a guy she usually saw from afar up in the rafters, he sure was handsome. And a gentleman._

_Happily, she shook his hand, repaying his warm smirk with a pleasant smile._

"_It's a pleasure finally meeting you too Agent Barton," she said, looking at Coulson momentarily, giving him an impressed pout. He smirked and blinked once in response._

_Gesturing to the mat of the gym, Barton stepped towards it. "Shall we?" he asked._

_Glancing at it, she nodded and followed him and Coulson as they stepped onto the mat. Barton, without the accompaniment of Coulson, sat criss-cross down on the mat—leaving Scotty's mentor standing there with his arms folded behind his back. Not knowing what to do, Scotty looked to Coulson for answers. He nodded, and she sat across from Barton._

_Confused, Barton eyed Coulson. With one gentle head twitch, Coulson gave up and awkwardly sat on the mat in his nice suit._

_All Scotty could think was how exciting it was. She wiggled where she sat, smiling at her two trainers for the day._

"_Now, let's get one thing straight. Your practicing comes later…for now, all you do is listen and remember," Barton said, slowly nodding, looking Scotty straight in the eye._

"_Yes sir," she said mechanically._

"_Perfect. First things first, is going undercover," Barton began, setting one hand firmly on his knee._

"_Do I get to do that?" Scotty asked, her eyes widening. She looked to Coulson, who was still trying to adjust on the floor._

_Barton shook his head, "Not usually."_

_From there, he went on a ramble about one or two experiences he's had undercover. One was something about Budapest with Agent Romanoff, but he didn't go into much detail about it. But one of the important things he told her to remember, was to believe the part she was playing while keeping a level head._

_At first, it seemed contradictory. Believing in a part, while not losing your head in the matter—to Scotty it was like asking a vascular surgeon to do surgery without cutting any veins in the process. But after he evaluated, she understood. His example was if she went undercover as the wife of a married couple who were very much in love. She was to believe that they were truly in love, but she wasn't supposed to get in too deep to where she could actually fall in love. It was like listening to a movie script pulled right from a subplot of James Bond._

_Coulson's little tidbit in that, was what he referred to as "A Person's Biggest Threat"._

"_A person's biggest threat is only themselves," he said, finally settling for a sitting position of his knees barely pulled up to his chest._

_Scotty quirked a brow. "Themselves?" she laughed. "Usually it's like…the villain, or a weapon."_

_He just shook his head. "Only you can be the one to really put yourself in a dire situation. If _you_ blow your cover, you're done with," he explained, shrugging nonchalantly. Barton nodded in agreement._

"_But what if someone makes you blow your cover? Like the stereotypical, 'Oh my gosh, hi, how have you been' type deal in movies?"_

"_The only person who can make you blow it is you. As far as you're concerned, you don't know the person that claims they know you," he coolly replied._

_The next section was about lying. Lying and telling the truth. Like when it came to polygraphs, you had to stay calm and believe every lie you were telling. You want someone to believe you when you're lying? Keep eye contact, say it with enough confidence to appear casual, and stand still._

"_Other spies will look for all those little signs. If you keep eye contact, keep stress levels low, and have confidence, you could lie to anyone," Coulson said thoughtfully._

"_What if you're telling the truth, but you want them to think you're lying?" she asked, looking between Barton and Coulson. She had seen that in movies too. The hero desperately tries to escape, warning people about impending doom, but they don't believe them and die. It sounded smarter in her head when she asked it._

_Barton shrugged. "Say it as desperately as possible. If they already found out you lied before, they'll think anything you try to tell them is a lie, especially if you're frantically spitting it out."_

"_If no one believes you though, when you want them to, the best to do is resort back to confidence. As much as you want to beg and plead, it won't get you anywhere. It only gets others killed," Coulson added, making note of it. She knew because while he explained he lifted his pointer finger._

_The last section was STEALTH; both of their specialties apparently._

_Coulson's bit was always staying quiet. If something bites you while you're hiding, bite your tongue—if you get a limb chopped off, you bite your tongue—if something triggers you to want to scream, in any way, shape or form, bite your tongue, your thumb, anything. It's all self control. A Person's Biggest Threat, he reminded her._

_Barton's bit was slyly taking out your target without being detected. The best thing to do is stay out of eye line, like up high or way down low, like a safety spot. When you do take out a target, hide as fast as possible—whether that be taking the target with you or leaving them there. People are bound to show up and get you the moment you jump from your safety spot. If you don't have a human target, but instead an item, just wait it out. No point in uselessly killing people to get what you want. Agent Romanoff would beg to differ in some instances, but that was besides the point._

_All the while, Scotty sucked in the information, nodding and rarely blinking. If she watched them while she spoke, and quietly repeated what they said, she would get it down in her head._

_Barton was then called off to leave, so they escorted him out to the hall. Once he was gone, Coulson led Scotty towards the bridge._

"_Do you think you've got it?"_

"_I do," she said, testing it out. She was confident she had the lying down, it was easy enough. Her first test was Coulson._

_He smirked. "Liar," he muttered._

"_What? How did you know?" she gasped._

"_When you said it, your eyes twitched. Even the smallest thing can give it away."_

_She huffed and he pointed at her, "And you gave in too easily. Never let that happen again."_

_She rolled her eyes. "Fine, then when does practice start?"_

"_Tomorrow morning. I have meetings. Don't get in too much trouble," he advised as he walked onto the bridge, leaving her in the hallway alone._

"_Peh…meetings…" she sneered, spinning on her heels to walk back the way she came._

_~O~_

_Coulson stepped out the meeting, walking alongside another male agent. They were bent over a file, Coulson pointing to it, instructing the other agent. When he folded it shut, the two walked along in silence beside one another._

_Occasionally, Coulson darted his eyes around the hall, feeling like someone was watching him. Then something grabbed his shoulder._

"_So, Agent Coulson…had your eye on anyone lately?" the young male agent asked, trying to strike up conversation, having heard Coulson had recently started a relationship with a beautiful cellist. There was no reply._

_Turning to look at his walking mate, he saw nothing but air. He hadn't noticed that there was only one set of footsteps in that hallway._

"_Uh—Agent Coulson?" he called, looking back down the hall._

_Up in the ceiling, specifically the vents, crouched Coulson and Scotty. They were squished together, faces smooshed. But Scotty didn't care._

_Ignoring Coulson's glare, she grinned._

"_Was that good?" she asked, her voice muffled by how close they were._

_There was no reply, until she heard an exasperated sigh._

"_Yes. That was very good," he muffled back, speaking through a smooshed smile._

* * *

"Did you know about this?"

Bruce's hurt tone practically harpooned her through the chest. Everything that was happening—it was like watching a beautiful glass window shatter into a million pieces and she was there to get rained on. With his simple words, Tony and Steve's eyes were on her in an instant while Fury just pinched the bridge of his nose.

The door on the opposite side of the room slunk open and Romanoff and Thor walked in, right as Bruce spoke. Steve was slightly glaring in her direction, and Tony was staring at her like he was trying to see right through her. Trying to see into his best friend. Could she be lying?

"I—Bruce—" she tried to choke out, but she could hardly get the chance when her heart was telling her there was no point.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked, catching Bruce's attention. Her question sounded more like a command than an actual question.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," he said, just as snarky.

Natasha stepped toward him. "Loki's manipulating you," she said warily.

Scotty furrowed her brows, "Manipulating him?"

Cold brown eyes were on her again. "Don't play stupid. You've been doing what, exactly?" he insinuated, glaring at her.

The insinuation was more gut-wrenching than his anger about the possibility about her keeping secrets. He was suggesting that she—or SHIELD, she doesn't know—have been manipulating him. Like she manipulated him into being there and working, getting close to her so he would keep working without a bother.

"Wha—you didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she hissed back, sounding insulted.

Tony, watching Scotty carefully, blinked. "She didn't know about the weapons, Bruce," he said simply.

For a moment, Bruce looked at Tony in surprise, but it quickly turned to annoyance. Scotty was going to look in surprise, but instead, she felt it was more of gratitude. Tony believed her.

"Yeah, well, I'm not leaving because suddenly you guys are getting twitchy," Bruce said, shaking his head at Natasha. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

Scotty immediately looked to Fury, who pointed to Thor, "Because of _him_!"

"Me?" Thor scoffed, glaring at the director.

"Him?" Scotty questioned, hooking her thumb at him in confusion. She swore she heard Steve mutter the same thing.

"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out-gunned," Fury explained.

That whole cockamamie idea went in one ear and out the other for Scotty. She didn't understand how that made sense.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet!" Thor growled.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled," Fury said, rolling his eye.

"Like how you controlled the Cube," Steve quipped.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor explained like it should've been common sense.

Steve looked to Thor, "A higher form?"

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury muttered tiredly.

Finally Scotty let out a large snort—or a scoff—she couldn't tell. Fury and Thor turned to her.

"Forced our hand? We're SHIELD, we're obviously very good at covering things up," she sneered, feeling the hatred start to boil in her stomach and in her brain. She huffed and crossed her arms and Fury growled, "When there are higher powers out there that can easily destroy us, we need to be prepared!"

"Then don't blame him! Blame his crazy ass brother! We didn't have a whole planet attacking us—we had one God using a metal robot to do his dirty work if I remember correctly," she recalled in the file she had once flipped through.

Tony nodded. "Exactly. So a nuclear deterrent was your answer, cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury mocked angrily.

Whipping her head around, Scotty looked to see Tony's reaction to the little remark, but was caught off guard by Steve busting out with: "I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep—"

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony barked, placing a hand on his chest in astonishment.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve quipped again, Scotty, for the first time, hearing him use harsh sarcasm.

In front of her, Scotty felt Thor step forward, his step vibrating the floor.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," he growled.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury snapped.

Scotty rolled her eyes. "Oh please—that wasn't his fault. And obviously, with those blue prints, you were preparing to retaliate!" she barked angrily.

"You don't even know what we're talking about! If you don't understand something, don't try and act like you do—" Fury remarked.

"I wouldn't have to if you would've told me about all of this in the first place! I am a part of SHIELD—how dare you not include me!" she snapped, feeling Thor encroaching up behind her as she spun to completely face her director.

"We had our reasons," he scoffed.

That in itself, mixed with the tension in the room made her blood boil even further. He had reasons, did he? Well they had better be damn good ones.

"I agree with the maiden—she is your warrior—when battle is to commence, there is no use in excluding her from the strategy!" Thor said, backing her up. She nodded, not really getting his analogy, but it worked just fine.

A hum began to fill the room under all the yelling and arguing.

"Are you all so naïve? SHIELD monitors potential threats!" Natasha said, finding it obvious. Which it kind of was.

"And Captain America is on the threat watchlist?" Bruce replied.

"We all are," Natasha growled, rolling her eyes.

Scotty spun to face Natasha, then back to Fury, "We have a threat watchlist? Which I'm on? What else don't I know about?! I'm done with this secret keeping!"

"You didn't know any of this?" Bruce asked suspiciously through gritted teeth.

She spun to face him, her cheeks pink with rage. "No, because I never know _anything_! No one thinks I'm a need-to-know kind of gal! So I'm given the short end of the stick and shoved into a freaking corner!" she shrieked, stomping a foot and even pushing at Fury's arm.

"We thought you were still in contact with Stark—we couldn't allow him to have access to our system," Fury snarled, smacking her hand away.

"Excuse me?!" both she and Tony gasped, Tony putting his conversation with Steve to a halt. Tony advanced towards the director.

"You've been keeping information from her—because of me?" he snarled. "What gives you the right to withhold something like this from an Agent because of—of me?!"

"If you had gotten nosy, then we would've been having this talk _SIX. MONTHS AGO._"

Scotty pulled at her hair. "I can't believe this! I left Tony for SHIELD so I could not have this happen—and you're no better than he was!" she growled. Looking back on it, she remembered all the times SHIELD had doubted things about Tony—how many jokes they made when she was around—how she hadn't cared at the time because of anger. "And all those doubts you had about him—about my mechanics, about our relationship, about Tony's workmanship—what is wrong with you people?!"

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos!" Thor butt in.

"It's his MO isn't it," Bruce suddenly said, staring at Fury. "I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're—we're a time bomb."

"You need to step away," Fury said, holding out a hand. Scotty smacked Fury's hand away and backed towards Bruce.

Tony shrugged, playfully setting a hand on Steve's shoulder. "Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?"

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve snapped, pushing Tony's hand away.

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony threatened, his voice low.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony said, pretending to think for second before smirking.

Scotty furrowed her brows as the men continued. "I know guys worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you," Steve listed off, standing tall in front of Tony, towering over him.

The look on Tony's face was unreadable. She couldn't tell if he was hurt or not.

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve growled. She still couldn't tell if Tony was hurt.

"A hero, like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came from a bottle," Tony said, his tone snarkish. That comment actually made her gasp aloud.

"Tony," she winced. The two men turned to her and Tony pressed his lips together indifferently.

"Unlike you, I don't pretend to be a hero," Tony sighed. He understood how much of a war hero Steve was, but when it came to being a superhero, it was all science.

"Pretend? Why pretend to be something you aren't—what kind of hero gets his friend killed, and fixes her up with gears and springs instead of donors? Then you shield her and only hurt her more—huh?" Steve finally jabbed, poking Tony in the chest.

When Tony didn't back down, Steve shook his head. It was truly an evil side of him, and totally out of character. She could see Tony's eyes hazing over and twinkling a bit. Not from tears, but from remembrance. Scotty had tried to ignore the fact that Steve was talking about her and it had finally hit Tony.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," Steve muttered. The call from him made Tony's eyes flicker for just a second. No one had dared him to fight—ever.

"You people are so petty—and tiny," Thor mocked from beside Scotty.

"Yeah this is a team," Bruce remarked from behind Scotty. She turned to look at him.

The look in his eyes when they met was like he had been punched in the gut. He didn't know whether to believe anything she said. _He has to_, she thought. _He just has to_.

She reached out for him, but pulled back when he seemed to retract from her. The thought of him being revolted by her made her want to break down right there. After everything he had told her, trusted her with, what was she to do?

"Bruce…please…I didn't know," she muttered, keeping her voice stern, not letting it break under pressure.

"Don't lie to me," he said, shaking his head.

"I'm not—I would never…"

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his—" Fury began, but Scotty shook her head, looking to Natasha.

"No," she whispered, her vision going hazy.

"Where? You rented my room!" Bruce retorted, stepping forward, referring to Loki's cell. Scotty looked back at him and held up her hands, like it would calm him.

Now she couldn't take it anymore—she wanted the fighting to be over with. Tony was hurt, Steve was probably hurt deep down, she was hurt, Bruce—she didn't want him hurt.

"The cell was just—"

"In case you wanted to kill me. But you can't, I know, I've tried," Bruce finally blurted in his angelically calm ramble.

Everyone stopped what they were doing; every breath halted. Scotty gazed at him, seeing his image blurring.

"What?" she whispered.

Bruce stared at her heartbroken, seeing the tears forming in her eyes. The one thing he hadn't told her. But he couldn't back down from defending himself now.

"I got low," he started, looking everyone in the eye. "I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out."

Scotty bit her lip.

"So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk," Bruce said, gesturing to everyone. Finally his eyes landed back on Scotty.

She watched his hand crawl up the side of the table and reach for the scepter. Her eyes widened and she could feel something wrong with the entire situation, especially after he pulled it from it's place.

"You wanna know my secret, _Agent_ _Accion_? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Behind her, she could hear Fury and Romanoff begin to pull their guns from their holsters. She had to stop this.

"Bruce—" she whispered. Carefully, she reached one hand out for his hand, the other cupping his cheek. "Put down the scepter."

His entire demeanor changed immediately. He looked down at the scepter in his hand in astonishment, Scotty's fingers barely touching it, his knuckles snow white.

Across the room the computer started beeping like mad.

"We got it," Fury sighed.

Without looking at Scotty, Bruce put the scepter back on the table. Looking over her shoulder, Scotty saw Tony with his hand on Steve's chest, having held him back from advancing during the scene.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce muttered as he pulled his cheek away from her hand and walked to the screen.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked, stepping forward.

"Scotty and I can get there faster," Tony piped up immediately. She looked to him when he mentioned her name, her right hand instinctively rubbing at her left palm now. Tony noticed, his face looking indifferent.

Despite that he gestured to it, "See, she's getting an itchy trigger finger? We can get it!"

"Look, all of us—" Steve began to plan, but Thor cut him off, replying to Tony.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it."

With that, Tony turned to leave. Steve stopped him.

"You're not going alone."

"That's why I'm taking Scotty," Tony snarled.

"I'm not going to allow you to take her with you, just so she can get sucker punched again!"

"You gonna stop me?" Tony threatened.

"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve threatened right back.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony shook his head, looking like he was dying to do it.

"Put on the suit!"

Scotty grimaced and looked to Bruce, seeing him looking shocked. The screen was blinking repeatedly.

"Oh my God…" he muttered.

And suddenly, everything was aflame.

~ o ~

The metal grate was cold on her face when she opened her eyes. She had blacked out, just for a second. Agonizingly, she lifted her head to look around and found herself in a lower equipment room. Gently, she whipped her hair out of her face and looked back up at the window they had fallen through, seeing as how she was surrounded by glass and cuts had formed on her skin. The room above them was glowing orange. An explosion.

Carefully, she tried to hoist herself up, but was held down by rubble, trapping her leg by the thigh. Inwardly she growled.

"_Agent Romanoff, Agent Accion,_" Fury's voice said over her earpiece, catching her by surprise.

From ahead of her, she heard several muffled footsteps and a dash of red. Natasha started pulling at the rubble atop of Scotty's leg, using all of her might. Her grunts were strained.

"_Agent Romanoff, Agent Accion,_" Fury repeated.

Scotty stuck her finger to the ear piece, "We're okay!"

Her eyes darted beside her, having heard distant heavy panting. She looked to see Bruce, lying there, writhing around on the floor, gripping at the grate.

"Yeah we're okay," Natasha repeated, having gotten one thin piece of rubble off.

"Bruce…" Scotty whispered, thinking about reaching out for him, but she had to use her arms to try and pull herself out. Natasha heard her utter his name, and turned to Bruce in confusion. Her face read utter terror, though.

"We're okay…right?" the Russian agent muttered, her voice shaking.

A bead of sweat swam down both of their foreheads, as Bruce clenched and unclenched his fists swaying back and forth.

"This can't happen—this is what Loki wants," Natasha continued, tugging at the rubble desperately, trying to keep her voice down.

"Bruce—Bruce—you have to fight it," Scotty said just as frantically, trying to pull her leg out as Natasha struggled.

Bruce's panting got worse, his back arching. She didn't want this to happen—he had control. "We're gonna be okay. Listen to me," she muttered, her voice breathy, trying to be soothing. A single tear was starting to form in her eye, bothered by some smoke.

Two workers dressed in mechanics uniforms approached, calling out. "Are you guys hurt?"

Natasha looked at them in surprise, while Scotty just gritted her teeth and waved them away, her hand looking like a propeller it was moving so fast.

"Now—Bruce—we're gonna be okay, alright?" she continued, keeping her eyes on the workers as they scrambled away. "Bruce—I _swear_, on my _life_, I will get you out of this—you will walk away and never—"

Bruce let out a low growl and he lifted his head, slightly, his bright green eyes staring at her. "Your _LIFE_," he repeated, his voice deep and angry.

The sound made Scotty jump where she lay, and she watched in horror as Bruce's back started to grow, ripping at his shirt. His skin was bleeding to green, and all of his limbs were growing.

"Bruce—" she whispered as Natasha screamed in frustration through her teeth, trying to lift one big piece of rubble off of her. Natasha's scream mixed with Bruce's roars as he grew and grew, flinging off of the grate down to the floor, where he smashed into an air tank. Steam shot out everywhere, filling the room with fog.

With a large tug, Scotty pulled her leg out from the rubble and began to stand. Bruce's transformation was complete. He was now the Hulk.

"Nat run!" she screamed as the Hulk turned to look at them, no one recognizable in his eyes.

The two of them scrambled down a tight hallway that ran behind them. Scotty ignored her limp as she pulled Natasha into another hallway, hearing everything crashing behind them as the Hulk chased them.

How could they have let that happen? She remembered them promising a better environment—Tony should've taken him immediately to Stark Tower, like he had mentioned before. Maybe he would have been safer there.

Natasha grabbed Scotty's arm and pulled her up to a higher platform that was more encased in the darkness.

"We need to get out of here," Natasha pointed out, panting, whispering. They crouched on the platform, looking all around. Hulk was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm not just going to leave Bruce like this—"

"He's not Bruce anymore. We'll figure out how to save him later," Natasha cut her off.

They both stood up and carefully walked along the platform, trying to make sure their boots didn't make any noise.

But Scotty knew they couldn't sneak around for long.

With a loud roar, Hulk popped out of nowhere from behind them, making the platform rumble and shake. They gasped and looked back in surprise. The platform, from the weight, collapsed on one side, the floor inclining and crashing to the floor below them. Gasping, the two women lost their balance and rolled down the platform, landing on their feet as the Hulk bounded down the broken platform. Natasha pulled out her gun and immediately shot above Hulks head—gas erupting from a shot pipe.

They ran and started swinging and flipping their way through pipes and other platforms—trying to confuse him. Finally they made it to a small, narrow passage surrounded by glass. They rushed through as Hulk crashed through behind them, roaring. Sparks everywhere were flying and Scotty could feel herself running faster, propelling herself forward, past Natasha.

She wasn't going to let herself die now, not at Hulks hands. He wasn't going to appear the bad guy.

There was a smash and the Hulk disappeared. Scotty stared over her shoulder, her face covered in sweat. Both Hulk _and_ Natasha were gone.

"Nat?!" she panted, her throat feeling like sandpaper.

She rushed back to where Natasha had been and jumped through a hole, finding Natasha sitting against a wall, her face contorted in pain. Her hand was holding her side. The Hulk was advancing towards her.

"Bruce—NO!" Scotty screamed, jumping in front of Hulk as he drew his hand back to strike again. Her arms were held up to stop him, and he looked at her in surprise.

Recognition even.

"You're better than this!" she begged as he started lowering his arm, looking at her in distress.

_SMASH_.

Hulk was slammed through a wall by a blonde blob—none other than Thor—and all Scotty could do was stand there in shock. She had to get her head back—Thor was coming into play. Natasha grunted behind her and Scotty quietly sighed.

"Someone will be here soon, Natasha, stay still," she muttered. She called for medics and then hurtled through the hole in the wall, leading to an airplane hanger.

Thor was ducking and weaving away from Hulks blows. When Hulk tried to slam his hand down on Thor's head, he knelt down and held onto Hulk's hand, his arms shaking.

"We are not your enemies, Banner! Try—to—think!" Thor snarled through gritted teeth.

Scotty's helmet slithered up her neck and encased around her head as she watched Hulk punch Thor across the room. She couldn't stand by any longer and protect him.

The Hulk stalked towards where Thor was, and Scotty flew herself to Thor's side, way ahead of Hulk.

"Need some help?" she said, her voice sounding robotic through her helmet. He was kneeling there, wiping blood from his nose.

He looked up at her and smirked, "Are you capable of a distraction?"

She shrugged. "Let's find out," she muttered, her voice hard, trying to keep herself from saying no.

Thor lifted his hand, trying to call his hammer, and Scotty flew at Hulk. Dangling from the ceilings were chains, and her first thought was to grab one. Wrapping it around her wrist, she used it to swing by and kick him in the face. He stumbled back and she pulled the chain from the ceiling. Growling, she whipped it around until it wrapped around his neck, in which she instinctively pulled and he collapsed to the ground with a slam. Panting heavily, he grabbed at the chain and pulled her from the air towards him.

The chain, still wrapped around her wrist, tugged her forward towards his impending fist. Right as she pulled at the chain, she heard Mjolnir dash through to Thor. The Hulk turned in Thor's direction, allowing Scotty to just slam right into the floor.

As she got up, Hulk slammed into a plane beside her. Thor landed behind her, holding Mjolnir confidently.

"Thank you for your help," he nodded.

"We're not out of the ball park just yet big guy," she panted, watching as Hulk pulled the wing off of the plane.

He threw the wing, which Scotty's shoulder gun popped out to shoot, while Thor threw Mjolnir. Hulk grabbed it and fell backward, trying to lift he hammer off the ground.

Thor jumped at Hulk and punched him, grabbing the hammer and wrapping his arms around his neck.

"We need to tie him down! Control him!" Scotty called as she floated above them, looking all of the chains hanging around.

"Think of something!" Thor grunted as the Hulk struggled, evenly matched.

Scotty nodded, her head darting around, examining everything. _Tie him down, tie him down, tie him down, control him, control him, control him,_ she thought desperately.

Hooks on the wall far, far away were good enough to tie all of the chains to.

"I got it, I got it! Bring him towards the wall!" she called, pointing to the metal wall.

He nodded and she flew at all of the chains, pulling them from the ceiling and towards the wall. She tied the chains, pulling them into a knot around the hooks, looking out the window at the flaming engine close by. Behind her, Thor was struggling to lead Hulk towards the wall.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something floating out the window. Looking, all she saw was a large black plane, hovering, preparing itself.

"Oh my God—THOR LOOK OUT!" she screamed, jumping away from the window as the plane started shooting. The glass broke and fell to the ground, bullets slamming into Hulks side.

Hulk growled and roared, turning to the plane. Without hesitation he jumped out the window.

"NO!" she gasped.

Thor grabbed her arm, "We are no longer his concern! Loki is our priority now!"

A fuzz came through her ear piece and Tony' voice yelled in her ear.

"Scotts! What's going on on your side—how's Bruce?!" he yelled, sounding like he was struggling.

"Bruce is gone—he's all Hulk now—Thor and I are on our way to get Loki! I'll keep you updated!" she called, running after Thor, using all her might to pull herself away from grabbing Hulk and the plane.

"Scotts!" he called. "Take care of yourself!"

"Always!"

~ o ~

"I go high, you go low," Scotty whispered as they made it to the door. She flew up to the vents as Thor rushed to the door. Crawling through the small vent, she made it up into the dark rafters, watching the large containment cell Loki was standing in. Her helmet shrank back into her suit, as Thor ran in. The cell door was opening, allowing Loki to exit.

Thor jumped at his brother, falling right through him. Loki disappeared and the door to the cell closed. Scotty's eyes widened. That wasn't good.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki laughed, appearing at the door to the cell. Thor growled and flung Mjolnir at the cell wall. The glass cracked and the entire cell shuttered.

Loki grinned devilishly. "The humans think us immortal. Shall we test that?"

He moved to the control panel and prepared to press the button that would open the floor and drop Thor from the helicarrier. Scotty prepared herself for striking when Coulson's voice rang out like a beacon of hope.

"Move away please."

Scotty looked at the large, bulky gun Coulson was holding. She had seen him wield a weapon, but never anything like that. He gestured to it as Loki stepped away from the panel.

"You like this?" Coulson asked. "We started working on the prototype after you sent the Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?"

He lifted the gun, and it started glowing a bright orange. Scotty bit her lip, preparing for Coulson to fire, when Loki appeared behind him, shoving his scepter through Coulson's chest.

Everything seemed to freeze as Scotty watched Coulson's body lift above the ground, his face dropping in surprise. Thor slammed his hand into the glass, screaming in agonizing desperation.

"NOOOOOO!"

Scotty opened her mouth to scream the same, wanting to jump from her place and murder Loki where he stood. Her heart was jumping into her throat, wanting to push itself from her body—make sick all over the floor.

_Bite your tongue, your thumb, anything_.

Clenching her fists, tears forming in her eyes like her piping had a leak, she lifting her hand and gnawed at her knuckle. She could feel her teeth biting through the metal, causing her skin to pierce and her bones to crack. She couldn't give away her position. She couldn't stop herself from slamming her free hand on the pipes out of desperation to keep her other hand in her mouth.

Loki returned to the panel like nothing happened, Coulson slumping to the floor. He pressed the button and the floor opened. Thor fell away with the cell, and left Scotty alone to watch Coulson die slowly on the floor.

Turning to leave with a smile on his face, Loki played with his bloody scepter. Coulson's half dead eyes looked up into the rafters, right at Scotty. He knew she had been there. She pulled her hand from her mouth, and her lips twisted and turned, quivering like mad. She wanted to sob—to cry out for help. But he lifted a single finger to his lips, a reminder for her to stay quiet.

A single tear dangled from her lower lid, and she nodded. Like a child learning from a parent, she lifted her own trembling finger to her lips to signal that she would do as she was told. She would hold her tongue, she would stay quiet. Her entire body was shaking, the tear waving back and forth, ready to fall. Every breath she let out was choppy and shallow.

"You're going to lose," Coulson moaned out.

"Am I?" Loki laughed, turning to the dying agent.

"It's in your nature."

Numbly, Scotty crawled closer to where Loki was standing. She prepared her stance to jump down and take him, but she needed more stealth than that. Her sadness was turning into rage as she stared at the back of his head. His stupid, inflated ego.

She crawled down the wall, as speedy as possible, staring at him the entire time.

"Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky—" Loki said with a smirk as Scotty slunk up behind him. Her hand was ready to fire one bolt at him. Without a moments notice though, Loki reached around and grabbed her by the braid. He whipped her over his shoulder, and slammed her into the ground, his bloody scepter pushing itself against her jugular.

"Your little agent…failing at the simplest of tasks…where is my disadvantage?"

"You lack conviction," Coulson said unfazed.

Loki squinted at him, "I don't think I—"

The gun fired with a stifling blast and Loki flew back into the wall. Scotty stared up at the ceiling in defeat, her mouth dropped open, tears falling into her ears and her hair.

"So that's what it does," the two agents whispered together.

Loki ran and was free, because the two agents wouldn't get up.

Coulson couldn't, and Scotty just didn't want to.

She wanted time to stop.

Everything was wrong—going wrong.

Hulk was gone, Thor was gone, and Coulson would follow.

She choked out one word.

"_Help_."

**_OH MAH GOSH_**

**This chapter is nineteen pages long! What a long chapter!**

**Geeeeeeez**

**Read & _REVIEW_**

**_PLEASE_**


	10. Nothing to Cry About

_Sometimes she couldn't help but cry alone in her room during her training._

_Things would get hard, and no one would be compassionate enough to comfort her or tell her things will be easier. They kick her down and tell her to suck it up._

_She felt alone, left out with no one to talk to._

_One day though, Coulson found her crying in the darkness of her room._

"_Agent Accion?" he said, walking through the door. The lights turned on and he found her sitting on the edge of her bed, slumped over, tears streaming down her face._

_He furrowed his brows. "What's wrong?" he asked._

_She looked up at him and sniffed, her eyes red and puffy._

"_Nothing…just having more doubts about myself again," she slurred, sniffling. No point in lying, since he could easily see right through her._

_He trudged over to her and sat down beside her._

"_That's normal," he muttered. "You'll feel better soon."_

"_No," she said quickly, shaking her head. She played with her fingers. "No I won't. I'm tired of feeling like this."_

"_Like what?" he asked._

"_Like…like no one's here for me. Like I'm alone," she choked out. "I feel worthless compared to everyone."_

"_That's nothing to cry about," he said matter-of-factly. "I believe in you."_

"_Cause that's all I need, right?" she laughed, shaking her head._

_Smirking, he shrugged. "You might say that…besides…sometimes there are just—times where there isn't a way out. So you have to keep going. And crying isn't on that agenda."_

_She scoffed as another tear strolled down her cheek. "Tony said it was okay to cry," she remembered. Tony had always told her that after she had first cried in front of him. He always managed to find her in the bathroom crying, sitting in the shower, doused in water. He would sit and cuddle with her, holding her, getting soaking wet._

"_When was the last time you listened to Stark?" he asked, his smirk spreading into a smile across his chin._

_She chuckled. That was very true._

"_Trust me," he said, patting her shoulder and standing. "You'll feel better tomorrow. There's nothing to cry about."_

"_If you say so," she shrugged defeatedly._

_He stopped and turned to her._

"_Hey."_

_She didn't say anything._

"_Look at me," he said monotonously._

_Sniffling, she looked up at him and wiped a tear from her eye. The look he gave her was kind and warm._

"_You're not alone. Ever."_

_Pressing her lips together, she nodded._

"_I'll always have you right?"_

"_Of course," he nodded, smiling._

_She grinned, chuckling and sniffling._

"_Good night Phil."_

"_Good night Joni."_

_After that, she never cried again._

* * *

The world always seems to spin when mind-numbing news finally hits home for someone.

Scotty once had mind-numbing news, once before. It wasn't a death, but it was a loss of herself she felt.

Loki was gone and she and Coulson were alone. He was dying and she was just lying there like a log. She didn't want to move, because then she would have to deal with what would happen.

"Joni…" a strained voice muttered.

Her eyes dilated and everything around her seemed brighter. Like the voice pulled her from the casings of her mind. She wasn't alone.

Immediately she sat up and looked to Coulson, blood dripping lazily from his lips. She shaked as she got to her hands and knees and crawled towards him.

She was in front of him, kneeling there, grabbing at his shoulders. Blood was staining his nice suit. She touched the dark spot and cringed.

"You doing okay?" she murmured. He smirked and blinked slowly. For a moment, she was afraid he wasn't going to open them again. But luckily they did, right as Fury rushed in.

"I've had better days," he replied.

Fury knelt beside her, Scotty's bloodied hand reached up to touch Coulson's cheek. The agent looked to his boss, who was holding gently onto his forearm.

"I'm sorry, boss. The god rabbited," he muttered.

The look in Fury's eye was like it had been replaced with glass. He wasn't going to cry, but he certainly wasn't allowing himself to barricade himself off.

"It's not your fault," Fury muttered.

Coulson's eyes started half masting and opening again, fluttering. His eyes were glazing over. Scotty's chest started to flutter and the tears started again at her dry eyes, knowing what was coming. But it couldn't.

"N—No—just stay awake. Keep your eyes on me," she whispered, holding his face, keeping his head up.

"I'm clocking out here," he slurred.

"Not an option," Fury muttered in reply. Coulson reached up and touched Scotty's hand.

"It's okay," he choked out. The tone in his voice finally made her crack. She let out a sob and the tears fell down her face. "This was never going to work—if they didn't have something—to—"

His eyes died before he did. When his breath stopped, it was like the entire room was deprived of oxygen—Scotty couldn't breathe. It was like watching everything she knew wilt in front of her.

Fury stood up and muttered, "Agent Coulson is down." She could hear it echo in her earpiece.

"Oh my God—no—no, no, no—" Scotty trembled, trying to bring his face up to look at her again. She couldn't see life.

"No—you can't—Phil—"

A medical team rushed into the room, and Fury bent down and pulled Scotty away. She didn't fight it.

"A medical team is on your way to it's location," a voice said in her earpiece.

"They're here," Fury replied.

There was silence, and Scotty felt like she couldn't breathe.

"They called it."

~ o ~

All was in slow motion now.

Two agents were escorting Scotty to the bridge, where Fury said he would be waiting. She had stopped crying. Her nose was red, as were her eyes, but the tears were gone. She felt alone, but she knew she wasn't.

Being alone was nothing to cry about anyway.

She stepped onto the bridge, where Tony and Steve sat at the large table, Fury standing over them. Steve stared at a bloody Captain America trading card before looking at Scotty sadly.

When she had walked in, Tony looked up and stood immediately, his jaw clenched tightly. He must've heard she had been there.

The moment her eyes met with his—this friend who had told her it was okay to cry—she lost it. Without trying to hold back, her face contorted into agony and she burst into horrid sobs. She buried her face in her hands, feeling as pitiful as she must've looked.

Two strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a tight, familiar hug. Her forehead was pressed into his arc reactor, and she could swear that she heard it beating. She had missed his hugs. She shouldn't have left his care—he was right all along.

"Our communications, the Cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you," Fury said tiredly. "Lost my one good eye.

"Maybe I had that coming," he snarled, sounding angry with himself. "Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number, though, because I was playing something riskier."

Scotty placed her cheek on Tony's arc reactor so she could look and listen to Fury. He was looking at them.

"There was an idea, Stark and Agent Accion know this, called the Avengers initiative," he said confidently, standing up tall. "The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.

"The only one on board at the time, was Agent Accion," he gestured to her. Then he looked to Tony. "I didn't exclude her from the Tesseract project just because of you, Stark. I knew that if she knew of what we were doing…we wouldn't have a front-runner for the Avengers.

"Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in her…" he said, again looking Scotty. "In heroes."

Scotty lifted her head, gaining her voice back.

"As he should've," she sniffled.

"We won't let that all be in vain…right?" she asked, looking up at Tony.

He set a hand on her shoulder and neck. "Is this what you want?" he asked, his eyes dim.

She nodded, rubbing at her palm. "We need to do this…for him…"

Tony looked down at her hands, and grabbed a hold of her left hand. She furrowed her brows and he lifted it up in front of her, pressing his thumb into her palm. He pushed up, and she saw nothing but black. As fast as it had come, it had disappeared again and she was staring at Tony. She let out her breath and blinked profusely.

"What just—"

"It's in your left palm…if you need it…you know where it is…" he said darkly, blankly, before pulling away from her and rushing out of the room.

She looked down at her palm. She had it. Tony had given her the answer to turning her own mechanics on. After all the years. And yet it wasn't a glorious moment like she had thought. Because it also meant Tony had given in, to more than just pressure.

"Well, it's an old fashioned notion," Fury muttered.

Steve stood from his chair and rushed to Scotty. They looked at each other worriedly, and Steve led the way out the door to follow Tony.

Even after what had happened, Tony didn't want to be a part of it? Scotty wasn't going to have it, and neither was Steve.

They found him in the room where Coulson had died. The body was gone but the stain was still there.

Tony stood by where the cell had been, staring down into the pit. Steve watched him in silence from an extended platform by the door, while Scotty uncomfortably stared at the stain on the wall.

"Was he married?" Steve asked.

Scotty shook her head and sniffled, running a hand under her nose. "No. There was uh…someone I think…"

"A cellist," Tony finished for her, his voice cold.

"I'm sorry," Steve said quietly. "He seemed like a good man."

"He was an idiot," Tony scoffed.

Scotty bit her lip and shook her head. Steve stepped away from the edge of the platform.

"Why? For believing?"

"For taking Loki on alone."

Steve shook his head, standing next to Scotty. "He was doing his job!"

"He was out of his league. He should waited for Scotts to help," Tony said, looking to the two of them like they were stupid. "He should have—"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony," Scotty said, looking for him to understand Coulson. She understood Coulson very little, but enough to know that he wasn't as naïve as he appeared.

"Right. SHIELD taught you that. How did that work out for him?" he growled, pointing to the blood.

Stepping forward, Steve held out a hand to stop Tony, who was preparing to leave with that. "Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?"

"We are _not_ soldiers!" Tony snarled, shoving Steve's hand away, looking like he was finally welling up. Steve stared at him like Tony was just a desperate man. Uncomfortably, Tony glanced to Scotty. He had to say something.

"I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither are we," Scotty shrugged, knowing Steve had also lost interest in SHIELD the moment he heard about the nuclear weapons. "He has the same blood on his hands that Loki does. We're not doing this for Fury—we're doing it for Phil…"

"But we have to put that behind us right now," Steve added. "Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list—"

Looking back at the spot where Coulson fell, Tony cocked his jaw.

"He made it personal."

"That's not the point," Steve muttered, confused.

"That is the point," Tony piped up. "That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live."

"Why?" Scotty grimaced.

"To tear us apart," Steve muttered, understanding now.

Tony nodded. "Yeah, divide and conquer is great but—he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to be us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

Carefully, Scotty began nodding, also understanding. She glanced at Steve, "Yeah, yeah, we caught his act back in Stuttgart."

"Yeah. That's just previews, this is—this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full tail diva," Tony explained. "He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered—"

He stopped.

Scotty was trying to think now. He could be going to New York…Time Square, Hollywood, anywhere that he could get the word out with enough power for the Tesseract.

"Son of a bitch," Tony finally muttered and grabbed Scotty by the arm.

He pulled them out of the room.

"What—what?" Scotty asked. Steve caught up to them.

"Stark Tower—he wants Stark Tower."

"What makes you think that?" Steve asked.

Tony shrugged, "Think about it—it runs off of it's own energy source! It's one of the largest buildings in New York now—everyone sees it!"

Scotty let out a joyous laugh. "Tony that's brilliant! Steve go get suited up and get Natasha and meet us in the hanger!"

They split off in opposite directions, Tony and Scotty going to get his suit.

"I can't believe you came up with that—that's amazing! Now we're officially a team!" she squealed as they ran.

"We're not a team until we find Thor and Bruce," Tony said, his head twitching to the side.

Scotty remembered Bruce and Thor falling from the helicarrier. She didn't want to think of what could have happened to them.

"They'll show up Scotts, I know they will."

Tony got his suit on and they met Steve, Natasha and Barton in the hanger.

"Agent Barton! Nice to see you again," Scotty smiled, seeing the Agent for the first time in a long time. He didn't look so hypnotized as they had claimed. Barton smirked and the three of them rushed into a plane.

The plane turned on, and a pilot was thrown out of it.

"You ready Scotts?" Tony asked through his mask.

Her own mask crawled up her face and enclosed around her.

"Of course."

"The plan is that we head to Stark Tower, and Roger, Romanoff and Barton stay for back up in case something goes wrong," Tony explained stoically. She curtly nodded.

"Sounds like a plan Mr. Stark…let's just try not to mess anything up this time around," she snorted, thinking about the other time they tried to fight as allies.

"Glad to hear you two getting along again," JARVIS' voice cooed in their helmets. Tony let out a snicker and all Scotty could do was grin.

They were heading to Stark Tower, and they were going to finish this.

For Phil.

**The next two chapters, including this one, will be kind of short.**

**But I think you guys can handle it.**

**Read & _REVIEW_**

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	11. A Little Confidence Boost

"_I've always found this place very impressive_," the voices seemed to say, speaking through a smile. "_How you've managed to conjure this place from your subconscious_."

Bruce groaned when he heard the voice, cringing, trying to open his eyes. His heavy hand reached up and rubbed at his eyes. He was extremely tired for some reason. Using his aching muscles, as much as he didn't want to, he sat up, leaning on his elbows.

"_Where am I_?" he asked, squinting at all the whites and grays around him. His voice seemed to echo—like out of a bad horror movie kind of echo.

Wherever he was, was just pure white, with items that were shades of gray. If he looked hard enough, he thought he would see his childhood living room made up of white plaster and gray paint. Beside him, he could feel a cold presence, as well as a breeze coming up from the floor.

His eyes first fell to the floor, where there was no real cause for the breeze. His shirt sleeves and collar waved in the wind, and his hair blew around his face, but there was no fan, nothing physical causing it.

"_You're asleep. You can be wherever you want to be_," the voices replied from beside him. It was a mix of three voices, all expressing different emotions. One was slow, buried deep beneath the other two. It was calm and soothing. The second one was one that sounded sad, prepared to cry, biting it's lip while it spoke to keep from breaking down. The third was happy, speaking in an energetic way, sounding optimistic and joyous.

Afraid to look, but knowing he had to, Bruce twisted his neck to face the cold presence beside him. There on the floor, lying with its hands in it's lap, was a white figure—face less. It didn't have the mouth to speak, and yet it was the only thing that could be able to speak. One thing about it though, was that it had long, beautiful brunette hair.

"_Why am I here then_?" Bruce asked, accepting it's answer.

"_You're not in control right now_," the figure spoke, one voice giggling, and another sounding disappointed.

Bruce knew all too well what that meant. He sat up completely, resting one elbow on a knee he had brought up to meet it, and used his other hand to rub his face again. Painfully, his back arched as he sat up, tiring him.

"_Do not worry, all is well_," the figure said, sitting up slowly and mechanically with ease.

"_Right, don't worry. I'm not in control_," he practically scoffed, shaking his head in disbelief.

Although it didn't have a face, Bruce thought he could see a smile. The brown hair cascaded around the white face. Bits were curly, and other bits were straight. A single braid dangled by it's cheek. The face turned to him, slowly, like it's gears needed oil.

For a moment, they just stared at one another in silence. Because it didn't have eyes, Bruce couldn't tell what it was looking at, what it was thinking—and yet he wasn't uneasy. His eyes darted around it's face, trying to find some feature.

"_Who are you_?"

"_You're subconscious is still deciding. You're brain is too busy focusing on more important things_," the figure muttered.

He smiled, chuckling, "_Great, I can't even control that_."

"_Think about why you're here_," the figure replied.

"_I don't have to. I know why. Because the other guy is having a field day out there_," he sighed, rubbing his hands on his pants. "_God only knows what he's doing_."

The figure shook it's head, it's hair moving like silk. "_Not because of that. Think harder_," it also sighed.

He squinted. What was it talking about? Why else would he be here?

"_Because…I don't have control? Because I need a safe place? Because I want to be somewhere else—I don't know!" _he said frustrated, shaking his head and looking at the figure like it was purposefully trying to confuse him.

"_Don't think so hard, Bruce_," the happier voice chuckled over the other two.

Bruce looked around, the breeze still blowing around him. It wasn't just his imagination that it looked like his childhood home. It was.

"_So I do want to be somewhere else_," he muttered.

"_Not exactly_," the figure said.

"_Then tell me!_" he said, getting extremely tired of how vague this figure was.

The figure chuckled. "_You're here for a confidence boost. Your mind is searching for something to help you continue_," the figure said, standing up.

Bruce, for a second, thought the thing was made of fluid, because it didn't look like the figure was even bending any limbs to stand up. No imperfections anywhere.

"_So I came here?_"

The figure shrugged. "_No one knows the reasons for their manifestations. Maybe you missed it_?"

"_Why would I miss this place_?" Bruce muttered, looking at the room. He remembered his mother playing with him, but he also remembered his father doing…unspeakable things to her.

"_Your father is not here, Bruce_," the figure said quietly, looking around the room. "_And he doesn't need to be. Just don't think about him_."

For a moment, he paused. If he thought about his father, would he appear? It means that if he thought of anyone else, they would appear too. But if that could so easily happen, where did the figure come from?

"_If anyone I want can appear, how did you come to be_?" he asked, hopping to his feet.

"_I told you. Your subconscious is fighting itself—you can't decide who you want to talk to_."

"_Who are my choices_?" he joked, pacing around the room slowly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

The figure didn't answer. He turned to look at it, standing still. Pressing his lips together, he pulled his hands from his pockets and started playing with them.

"_Is there a specific reason I'm just waking up here now? Finally deciding to give me a much needed confidence boost?_" he asked.

"_You know that there are people out there who want you to be you, correct_?" the figure asked, stepping up to the counter from the kitchen that jutted into the living space.

Bruce squinted again, "_Excuse me_?"

The figure turned to him, seeming to hesitate. "_There are people out there who want you to know that it's good to accept both sides of you_," it whispered.

Scotty talking to him earlier about all of that popped into his head. He slumped his shoulders and sighed exasperatedly before pinching the bridge of his nose.

"_Okay…if this is some small part of my brain that's trying to tell me to listen to Scotty, this isn't going to work. I'm sticking to my guns,_" he said, shaking his head.

"_There are more than just her, Bruce!_" the figure said, sounding somewhat frustrated all of a sudden. "_Tony wants that too!_ _Betty might as well!_"

Bruce immediately started shaking his head, pointing at the figure. That was completely wrong.

"_That's not true, I just want to believe that,_" he said, irritated.

Before his eyes, the figure's hair started to curl a little bit more.

"_Do you miss her_?" the figure asked.

Bruce blinked a few times and shrugged. "_A little. Why_?"

"_It's just a question_," it replied, one of the voices growing a little bit smaller.

"_Why?_" he asked again, prepared to advance and make it explain.

"_It's a deduction. Would you want to see her again_?"

"_I told Scotty that I wouldn't,_" he started immediately. "_Because she has a life now_."

"_There's more than that_."

He opened and closed his mouth, caught off guard. He didn't know what to say. There was more than just…her having a life—of course there was! She—she didn't want to be with him if he was going to be half Hulk all the time. But he couldn't change that, he didn't know how.

"_She…couldn't handle the other guy…or that she had to share—I don't know_," he said, no longer angry, but actually a little numb. He didn't like thinking about it.

"_So you don't really miss her_," the figure asked.

Bruce pressed his lips together. "_I guess not_."

The figure stood there staring at him, the hair finally turning curly completely.

"_That's all we wanted to know, for now,_" the figure said, sitting down at the dining room table. The sad voice was gone.

Without even knowing it, he sat down in an arm-chair he had forgotten was there. And yet he knew he could sit down. He put his face in his hands and sighed. He was sweating.

There was so much silence, minus the breeze that would occasionally whistle. The figure tapped their fingers on the table—making Bruce's ears perk. They were tapping Claire de Lune, his mothers favorite song.

He peeked up at the figure, who was staring off out the window.

"_So how do you feel knowing you aren't in control right now_," the figure asked.

Bruce pulled his hands from his face and shut his eyes tight.

"_Um…I feel vulnerable…I feel inadequate…I feel so—worthless,_" Bruce explained, speaking monotonously like he was in a therapy session he didn't want to be at.

The figure cocked it's head to the side, "_Why worthless_?"

"_Because I had it under control. I could handle it,_" he shrugged, rubbing his hands together. "_Now look where I am._"

"_Have some faith, Bruce_," the figure sighed.

"_Faith? What's that supposed to mean—I'm in here because I lost my control of him and now he's loose_," Bruce scoffed. "_Everyone could be dead!_"

The figured shook it's head. "_They're not dead. Think Bruce! What do you remember?_"

Bruce shook his head as well. "_I remember an explosion, getting angry and then I woke up here._"

"_Think harder. What does _he_ remember?_"

About to say something, he stopped himself. No point in fighting it.

"_Um…okay…_" he muttered, shutting his eyes to think.

Desperately he pushed through the darkness in his mind, trying to see for anything he could remember. Nothing about Tony, nothing about the Captain, nothing about the Director or Thor—but there was Scotty.

He could hear her voice desperately promising that everything will be okay, that she'd get him out of this. And he yelled at her. Then there was more blackness.

"_I was with Scotty_," he muttered.

"_Anything more_?"

He furrowed his brows, trying to think harder.

An image of Agent Romanoff appeared in his mind, blurry, but there. She was on the ground, in pain, holding her side. He had hurt her. Bruce externally bit his lip.

Suddenly he was face to face with Scotty again, her hands and arms up, stopping him. He could feel the Hulk hesitating. She looked prepared to break down.

"_BRUCE—NO! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS!_" she screamed, her voice traveling through a tunnel.

She spoke to Bruce, but the Hulk listened.

"_She…she stopped him_," he muttered.

"_She did_," the figure said happily, stalking towards him. "_What do you think that means?_"

"_She's the tamer of beasts? I wouldn't know…But, that doesn't make sense_," Bruce said, opening his eyes and looked up at the approaching figure.

"_She believes…what?_" the figure asked, trying to get him to finish that sentence for it.

"_That the other guy is good. That I shouldn't be ashamed,_" he asked, looking around.

The figure sighed. "_Your friend believes in the other guy, because she believe in you._"

"_And let me guess, the Hulk realizes that and didn't hurt her because of that,_" Bruce mocked, leaning back in the chair.

The figure, now sitting criss cross and straight backed on the floor, quietly sighed and inclined it's chin to the floor. They sat in silence. Bruce was starting to think he had offended it.

"_How often do you miss your mom_?"

"_Everyday_," Bruce said without hesitation, looking down at his hands. "_Luckily she never got to see anything of the Hulk…but she died too soon_."

"_Would she have believed in the Hulk? That he could do good?_" the figure asked, looking around the room.

Bruce shrugged. "_Maybe…but she'd say it would be because of me._"

"_Sounds like someone else, doesn't it_?"

He tapped his foot, thinking of other people. No one came to mind. "_I don't understand._"

"_Scotty_," the figure said exasperatedly.

"_I knew that. And she respects that I disagree_," Bruce shrugged in response, remembering Scotty bringing it up.

The figure laughed. "_You compared Scotty and Betty…but she seems to have more in common with your mom_," the happy voice said louder than the soothing one.

"_What, they're both dead? He probably killed Scotty after she stuck up to him_," Bruce suddenly spat, feeling angry even thinking about the comparison. "_And why do you keep bringing her up—Scotty?_"

The figure stood. "_It's not just coincidence!_" it said, trying to leave it at that.

An odd look from Bruce made it sigh yet again.

"_Think about all of this! Just think! Not about anything specific—go through your thought process…and tell me what you want!_" the figure spat, stepping away from him and crossing it's arms.

"_What I want?_"

"_Yes. What do you want…right now?_"

Bruce sighed, looking away, "_Besides you to drop the subject?_"

A dark feeling started to emanate from the figure and Bruce shifted uncomfortably.

As he was told, he started to think, just staring up at the ceiling. He was thinking about how jumbled the figure was, and yet he understood what it was saying sometimes. It didn't make sense with its own thought process, what it was trying to get at.

So Scotty was like his mother huh? She was nice enough, he'd give her that. But saying she was like his mom was a stretch. Really. Scotty could be another passing face for all he knew. The only lasting affect was that she was a woman with robotic mechanisms buried in her skin. But was it more about her opinions? Is that what it meant? Even then, it wasn't enough for him.

Scotty believed in the Hulk, okay, that was something his mom would do too. She believed in the Hulk because it was Bruce that was holding onto him. That they were good for each other. It was ludicrous.

"_I want control_."

"_You can't have it,_" the figure replied with a smug shrug.

"_Then I want people to know I can_."

"_Why would you want that? You pretty much said it yourself, Bruce, the other guy is a beast_," the figure scoffed. "_No one would believe you_."

"_When did you suddenly get so negative?_" Bruce said, furrowing his brows and glaring at the figure. The thing claimed he needed a confidence boost, and here it is suddenly shooting him down.

"_THINK_," the figure yelled, it's voices echoing throughout the room, repeating over and over again, even yelling backwards.

Who, who, who? He couldn't think.

The only one verbal about wanting to believe was Scotty. It was disheartening, and yet at the same time, despite how unimportant she seemed to him, it was nice knowing someone believed in every part of him.

"_Scotty_," he muttered.

"_What was that?_" the happy voice said, the other one almost completely gone.

"_I want…people to believe…like Scotty…" _he said, not knowing where the command was coming from.

"_Do you_?"

"_Yes_."

"_Why?_"

"_Because…if people believe in him…than maybe I will_," he muttered, cocking his head to the side. A deep rumble in his stomach, and a ache in his chest made the words come out strained.

"_And how are you going to get that done_?"

"_I'll have help…I have people who care about me now…_"

"_Oh really? Who._"

"_Tony—Scotty—they care about me—they believe in me._"

The figure scoffed. "_Oh stop kidding yourself Bruce. If they don't matter to you, how do you know they even care—you've thought before that Scotty herself was just a fad._"

"_I never thought that_."

"_Never directly…but she's just a pretty face to you. She means nothing. Maybe the Hulk did kill her—what would you care?_"

"_Don't say that_," Bruce whined, shutting his eyes tight and he grabbed the sides of his head. Why had this thing suddenly turned so evil?

"_THINK, BANNER_."

"_THINK WHAT?!_" he finally screamed, standing up and getting in the figures face. "_What do you want me to think about?! Scotty believes in me—she believes in the Hulk—and yes I said I may never see her again but that doesn't means she doesn't matter! She cares about me, all right?!_"

The figure stood still. He was fuming, panting in it's face. He thought he could see condensation forming on it's plastic skin. When it hadn't moved, he blinked a few times and stepped away.

"_How sentimental._"

Just those words made him groan and he collapsed back into the chair. Now all he could think about was Scotty. Was that the confidence boost? He needed people to believe in him, like Scotty did—that's why the figure kept bringing her up? If she wasn't dead, if she wasn't hurt, than he wanted to see her. She was always so positive—maybe she could brighten his mood.

That was something else she had in common with his mother. Just walking into a room could lighten it, every smile like a brand new day. It was enlightening and cheerful and made someone walk lighter. He needed to be in a good mood right about now.

"_I want to see her,_" he winced, burying his face in his hands.

"_What?_"

"_I want to see Scotty. I need her—_" he started, but hesitated. There was silence. The figure wasn't going to say anything. "_I need her to tell me everything is fine_."

The breeze started to pick up, his hair and clothes swirling everywhere. And suddenly it stopped.

"_Why didn't you just say so_?" only the happy voice said, right in front of him. Bruce pulled his hands away from his eyes and was face to face with Scotty.

The figure had become her. Her smile and everything, even the sparkle in her eyes.

"Hi_,_" she giggled, talking quietly, sweetly. When she closed her mouth, she tried to keep herself from smiling by pressing her lips together.

He had wished her there. Or had she been summoned by the figure into itself…to finally give him someone to talk to?

"_Hi_," he said, laughing slightly, astonished at how life like and real it was. Her hair was still down, with the small braid brushing her cheek.

If only, in real life, it was this easy to find someone that believed in him. To have them at your fingertips. The thought even made him a little emotional.

With a tired sigh, he leaned his head down and into her shoulder, shutting his eyes tightly. Without thinking, 'Scotty's' arms wrapped around his shoulders and stroked the hair on the back of his neck.

"What's wrong?" she muttered, sounding concerned.

"_I just…I don't know what to do_," he muttered. She smiled and pulled him in closer and tighter.

"Honey, if you want to wake up, you can wake up," she assured him.

"_I don't think I can_," he replied, pulling his head off of her shoulder so he could look her in the eye.

She stroked his cheek. "Bruce…" she muttered, biting her lip. She examined his face carefully. "You are the stronger half. And you always will be."

"_Did…did he hurt you_?" he asked. He was unaware if this Scotty was speaking from reality or if this is just what he wanted to hear…but whatever she said he would believe.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, no, of course not."

"_Romanoff_?"

She shook her head, pressing her lips together, suppressing that smile again.

"_Tony? Steve—_"

"Bruce—" she cut him off, lifting his head high. "You didn't hurt anybody."

Staring her in the eyes, wanting to believe she was real, he allowed her to press her forehead to his.

"Wake up, Bruce," she whispered harmoniously.

"_What?_" he said, mesmerized by her eyes.

"You have to wake up now, sweetheart," she cooed, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "We need you."

He sat up. "_How will I find you_?"

A light blinded him and then there was nothing but black.

~ o ~

Bruce opens his eyes and sees nothing but concrete dust and a hole in a warehouse ceiling. Tiredly, he sits up. Dust falls from his hair.

He's naked. That's one thing he was really confident about the moment he could tell this from that. And he could feel someone staring at him.

He turned to look over his shoulder at an old man.

"You fell out of the sky," he said simply.

"Did I hurt anybody?"

"There's no body around here to get hurt. You scared the hell out of some pigeon's though," the man said, pointing around the warehouse.

He sighed and rubbed his head. "Lucky."

"Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell."

He looked back at the man. "you saw?"

"The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Here—" the man explained, picking up some clothing. He tossed it to Bruce, and he started to unfold the pants and slip them on.

"I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular sized fella," the man smirked as Bruce buckled the pants.

"Thank you," was all he could think to say.

He started unfolding the shirt. The Scotty in his mind told him that they needed him. For what, he didn't know, but he really hoped that that was true. He needed to see Scotty in person—to confirm what is odd psyche had tried to tell him. "Are you an alien?"

Bruce paused. "What?"

"From outer space—an alien?"

"No."

"Well then, son, you've got a condition."

**Filler chapter!**  
**It gets repetitive and stupid and weird and it makes no sense, but I've been writing it for hours, and my eyes hurt and my brain hurts.**

**I'm sorry lol**

**Read & _REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW_**

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